DATA CENTER SPACE RENTAL TIPS

Data is the name of the game when it comes to competing in today’s market and an efficient data center space could determine a strong base. The ability to properly harness rich and related data provides players with the edge to lead the game. Irrespective of the type or scope of data collected or required for market players’ operations, there is a need for underlying infrastructures that will be used to store, process or distribute these data.

Data centers is a core infrastructure for the data economy which is developed to meet the storage, processing or distribution needs of businesses, organizations and institutions. Data center providers have calibrated their service offerings to enable customers get their preferred solution based on computing power, storage size, floor space, network architecture and other requirements.

Considering the cost, time and expertise required to develop and manage a full data center, most businesses, institutions and organizations are opting to explore available offerings which includes data center space rental and colocation for large scale users.

Data Center Space Rental

Data center space rental is similar to leasing an office space, where the tenant only requires a portion of the building such as floor or even a fraction of a floor to run businesses. For data centers, their leasable spaces are provided to house their tenants’ servers, equipped with sophisticated network connections, stable power supply, cooling, security, and fire suppression systems.

Renting a data center space gives the highest form of control to tenants as they are to provide the management staff, retain the sole right to restricted areas, and are allowed to customize the space based on preference.

Data Center Colocation

Colocation service is also offered by data centers to house and power customers’ servers. This is different from dedicated server hosting as colocation servers are properties of the customers and not that of the data center provider.

Unlike data center space rental, Colocation provides flexible options for operations management which could include Technical Support, Server and Network Monitoring, Alerts, and Logging, Asset Tracking, Patch Management, Capacity Planning, as well as Backup and Disaster services.

Essential Tips for Renting a Data Center Space

Now that you know the fundamentals of Data center space rental and Colocation, it is important to have handy, criteria that makes a data center a suitable choice for your business or data operations. The following tips will help you in shopping right for data center space.

1.      Choosing the Right Location

Getting the right data center location is highly dependent on your business or organizational data requirements.

For a network-intensive operation, where data are to be delivered in near real-time at a high frequency, there is a need to consider a data center that is closer to the data recipients and if possible, the facility should also be close to the content or data provider.

For process-intensive operation, where a lot of computing power is required, the data center should be located in a site or region where there is high cooling efficiency and less disturbance around the facility, as well as a place with dedicated power options. Distance is not a significant problem in this case as the main aim is to provide a serene environment for high performance servers.

On a general note, Deloitte suggested in its data center outsourcing report, that the criteria used to select a company’s office location should not be used in deciding the location of its data center. This can result in leasing cost-ineffective premium data center spaces which is not fit for the purpose of the organization.

2.      Power

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is the ratio of total amount of energy available to a data center facility vs. the energy delivered to computing equipment.PUE is an expression of efficiency, however, it is important in marking when you are using too much power or operating optimally. Hence, PUE is a major factor in renting the right data center space for your operational requirements.

The power source of a data center is also to be taken into serious consideration for cost implication and organizational commitment to carbon emission. For instance, a company or organization that is committed to carbon reduction should not be caught using a data center whose power is provided by carbon-emitting plants, as this can wreck the organization’s goal.

Also, it is beneficial that the data center space to be leased is on a different power grid from that of your office building. This will ensure that the office and data center don’t get affected by power outage at the same time which could be caused by natural disaster.

3.      Network Model and Topography

Not every data center is a carrier-neutral facility. Hence, it will be a wise decision to confirm the existing carriers in a data center before opting for it services as this can affect cost, flexibility, and network quality.

Although, you can customize the network topography of your data center space, it is still important to consider the cost implication and number of failure points to avoid collective outages that could be caused by a single network cable.

4.      Scalability

Renting a data center space may seem to be a long term venture that is expected to serve the business or organizational data needs for even a decade. However, data center service retailers cannot be so sure of operating within a single building for that long, as the increase in demand for such services are steadily on the rise.

Getting a new team for a totally different location could be more expensive and work-intensive. Hence, it is better to rent a data center space in a facility that has expansion potential with spare plots around it.

Conclusion

Renting or leasing a data center space requires proper evaluation that will ensure sustainable operation and seamless integration with business or organizational objectives. A keen attention to the tips mentioned above will definitely steer you towards renting the right space for your data needs.