TOP 10 BEST REASONS FOR COLOCATION

TOP 10 BEST REASONS FOR COLOCATION

INTRO IT infrastructure colocation is one of those few things in life where you have to ask yourself, Why wouldn t I want this? Colocation can unburden you from some of the routine and resourcesapping chores that come with the care and feeding of running your own data center. For that reason alone, you d assume it must be expensive. It s not. Quite the contrary because a top-notch colocation facility enjoys bigtime economies of scale that you could never hope to realize on your own. And in all likelihood, its services will be more complete and more secure, and will deliver better availability and performance from your systems. Here are the top 10 reasons why this is true. pg. 01

01 FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE 02 SECURITY Colocation is a CapEx free alternative to maintaining your own data center. supplies (UPS) and HVAC units and 03 NETWORK SPEED monthly fee. & RELIABILITY network, and without the operating expenses in training data center staff with the right skill sets, colocation lets you leverage a multi-tenant data Rather than invest capital in backup center that already has made the generators, uninterruptible power investment in the infrastructure and personnel. You have access to the best facilities available for a fixed 04 BACK-UP YOU POWER HAVE ACCESS TO THE BEST 05 MONTHLY UPTIME FEE. RELIABILITY FACILITIES AVAILABLE FOR A FIXED pg. 02

02 SECURITY NETWORK SPEED & RELIABILITY 03 You can access your equipment any time night or day in a colocation facility, as long as you have the right credentials to pass security. Sites 04 are staffed and BACK-UP monitored 24/7 by trained professionals and backed by POWER 05 UPTIME RELIABILITY 06 ACCESS ON-STAFF LISTS. SKILLS video surveillance, biometric scanners, PIN-based card access and locked cages surrounding your gear. No one gets in or out without proof of identity, and every visitor is checked against customer-defined access lists....every VISITOR IS CHECKED AGAINST CUSTOMER-DEFINED REGULATORY pg. 03

03 NETWORK SPEED & RELIABILITY 04 BACK-UP POWER Most companies usually get just enough Internet bandwidth to satisfy current needs, with maybe a bit of overhead and perhaps even a 05 secondary ISP. Leading UPTIME colocation facilities have redundant Internet RELIABILITY networks and different Internet 06 ON-STAFF SKILLS 07 REGULATORY COMPLIANCE backbones coming into their facilities. Service upgrades take minutes to implement. This level of redundancy, bandwidth and availability makes for much more speed and reliability than is available or even feasible at most office locations. MOST COMPANIES USUALLY GET JUST ENOUGH INTERNET BANDWIDTH TO SATISFY CURRENT NEEDS... pg. 04

04 BACK-UP POWER 05 UPTIME RELIABILITY Power outages are a common occurrence in all geographies. Your building or office complex may have back-up power already, such as a generator capable 06 ON-STAFF of providing some power for a two- to four-hour period. Colocation back-up SKILLS systems are the type with highly redundant power distribution systems including UPS and generators to back up commercial power. The best among colocation providers have ironclad contracts for fuel deliveries during the most challenging of times. Your servers never had it so good. 07 REGULATORY COMPLIANCE THE BEST AMONG COLOCATION PROVIDERS HAVE IRON-CLAD 08 FLEXIBILITY OF TIMES. CONTRACTS FOR FUEL DELIVERIES DURING THE MOST CHALLENGING QUALITY pg. 05

05 UPTIME RELIABILITY 06 ON-STAFF Everything is redundant SKILLS in a colocation facility: air conditioning, UPS, power generators, utility power, network routers, Internet backbones with plenty of extra capacity and 07 REGULATORY even technical staff resources. If COMPLIANCE anything goes down, the redundant system is in place and ready to take over without your servers and network equipment ever noticing, leaving you to sleep peacefully through the night. 08 FLEXIBILITY IF ANYTHING GOES DOWN, THE REDUNDANT SYSTEM IS IN PLACE AND READY TO TAKE OVER... 09 QUALITY OF SERVICE DISASTER pg. 06

06 ON-STAFF SKILLS 07 REGULATORY Quality colocation COMPLIANCE operators, especially those that also offer cloud computing and storage services, invest in people with hardware, software, networking, security and 08 FLEXIBILITY compliance skills sets that are topnotch. They operate and maintain a state-of-the-art infrastructure so that you don t have to do so. The colocation provider can also be your on-site technical team to help solve a specific problem. 09 QUALITY OF SERVICE THE COLOCATION PROVIDER CAN 10 DISASTER ALSO BE YOUR ON-SITE TECHNICAL TEAM TO HELP SOLVE RECOVERY A SPECIFIC PROBLEM. pg. 07

07 REGULATORY COMPLIANCE 08 FLEXIBILITY Nothing says reliable like a data center operator that commits to, invests in and maintains regulatory- Leach-Bliley (GLBA). Beyond that, compliant computing infrastructure. 09 An SSAE 16-audited QUALITY data center can help you meet the requirements OF SERVICE of regulatory compliance acts such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), HIPAA/ HITECH, PCI DSS and Gramm- some providers actually provide IT infrastructure and cloud environments that are PCI-DSS and HIPAA compliant and audit ready. 10 DISASTER RECOVERY AN SSAE 16-AUDITED DATA CENTER CAN HELP YOU MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF REGULATORY COMPLIANCE ACTS... pg. 08

08 FLEXIBILITY 09 QUALITY OF SERVICE With proper planning, a quality colocation services provider can have your business up and running comfort increases with your supplier, in a matter of hours. As your 10 business grows, DISASTER the infrastructure is already in place to accommodate RECOVERY your needs for more rack or floor space, additional bandwidth, faster connection speeds, etc. As your it s good to have one capable of providing additional managed services such as application support, or storage and cloud services....a QUALITY COLOCATION SERVICES PROVIDER CAN HAVE YOUR BUSINESS UP AND RUNNING IN A MATTER OF HOURS. pg. 09

09 QUALITY OF SERVICE 10 DISASTER RECOVERY When most people think of Quality of Service (QoS), service level agreements and uptime commitments come to mind. Both are critically important and should be clearly understood and agreed to in advance (at least 99.99 percent is what you should expect). Beyond the numbers is quality of customer service. If the colocation provider does not treat you like it s a privilege having you as a customer in the facility and acts more like a landlord collecting rent from a tenant, then move on. You are getting short changed. WHEN MOST PEOPLE THINK OF QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS), SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS AND UPTIME COMMITMENTS COME TO MIND. pg. 10

10 DISASTER RECOVERY Consider using a data center as a disaster recovery location. Or, use it as the primary location for your data and your office for backups and recovery. Just make sure you choose a data center in the right location. You want it to be close enough in case you need to be there on site. However, you also want it to be a safe distance away in the event a disaster strikes your primary business location. HOWEVER, YOU ALSO WANT IT TO BE A SAFE DISTANCE AWAY IN THE EVENT A DISASTER STRIKES YOUR PRIMARY BUSINESS LOCATION. pg. 11

ARE YOU READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP TO OUTSOURCE YOUR IT? CALL 866-433-2510 TO TALK TO A SOLUTIONS ENGINEER OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT PEAK10.COM