Articles

Despite an ever-increasing number of quality colocation facilities to choose from, organisations often struggle to pick the right data centre partner for their needs. What are the five key questions that an organisation should ask when selecting a colocation facility and why are the answers so important?

Any simple search will outline the importance of location, connectivity, space, security and availability. All are important but the customer starting point should always focus on power. The most important questions to ask any prospective colocation data centre services provider should tell you everything you need to know about where the power resides.

Ask when the power chain was designed and whether it been modified since it was first commissioned? How old is the infrastructure? When was the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) installed? How often does it require maintenance? When is it due for refresh? What is the dedicated set-up for my data-hall?

Equipment maintenance is disruptive and aging equipment needs greater maintenance and is more prone to failure. Providers go to great lengths to describe uptime in particular terms but planned downtime for equipment maintenance and repair can be seriously disruptive.

Ask when was the last outrage? How did the UPS perform? What type of energy storage is used? How long is the battery time? How often is it called on? During the last outage did the gensets start? How long did they run for? On average, how many hours do they run annually?

Does your chosen colocation provider measure its carbon footprint for every site? How is it being measured? What reports does it provide to customers? Does it issue annual sustainability reports? What power purchase agreements (PPAs) does it have in place? Has it signed the Carbon Neutral Data Centre Pact?

These are challenging times for all energy intensive businesses such as data centre providers. In energy efficiency and sustainability reporting terms colocation providers are coming under more scrutiny. In uncertain times it is vital to have candid energy conversations with your colocation provider before applying ink to a contract. The best colocation providers are committed to openness and transparency, and you can measure this by asking first about power.

First published on page 26 in Inside Networks