subject: What To Expect From A Data Center Service Provider [print this page] Are you in need of data center service? Do you need enterprise hosting solutions to house your mission-critical business applications? This article will provide you with information regarding what you should expect from your data center service provider. It will examine what you should expect from their personal, their facility and their security.
Your business will trust this service provider to enhance performance and ensure availability of your critical business and network applications as well as deliver the highest quality service. This is why it is extremely important to do your research before you choose a data center service provider.
A high quality service provider employs people with deep process knowledge and the technical expertise that allows them to deliver the best data center service and solutions to their customers. An experienced team's operational efficiencies translate into cost savings and peace of mind for you.
A high quality data center service provider's is comprised with data center expertise from the CEO to the operations technician at the front line. Their entire team has years of experience designing, building, operating and managing world-class facilities. They work hard at understanding you and your business and technical requirements. They take a consultative approach to designing your space and power to ensure the uptime that your applications demand.
A first-rate data center service provider offers state-of-the-art facilities and services for the data colocation and management of mission-critical business applications. They pay attention to detail, have a strict process culture and world-class customer service. This enables them to offer maximum reliability, security and stability.
Some additional features to look for in a data center service provider include the following:
- Customized data colocation space: Cabinets, cages & private suites built to suit clients needs
- Support via 24x7x365 Network Operations Center
- Superior operational practice and service delivery through documented process and procedure
- 2N or N+1 Redundancy for power as well as N+1 HVAC and network
- Multiple physical layers of security
- Carrier-neutral solutions
A superior data center service provider expertise includes data center facility site selection, design and engineering management, electrical/mechanical capacity metric development/management, mission-critical equipment selection and procurement, construction management, mission-critical facility physical plant operation and maintenance, and environmental compliance engineering.
A high quality service provider includes remote hands as part of the data center management service at no additional cost and provides for power cycling of customer owned equipment, which is facilitated by switched PDU's in the customer cabinets.
Finally, a superior data center service provider monitors all of their critical IT data center systems for status (change of state), trouble and alarm condition. This means we have situational awareness 24x7 of their electrical and mechanical systems. They should also have room-based temperature and humidity conditions monitored to ensure systems stability.
When an alarm sounds, a superior service provider's personnel are alerted to the status condition, and respond appropriately to remedy the condition back to normal operating status based on their response procedures.
Choosing a data center service is a very important to you and your business. Remember it is important it to do your research before deciding on a service provider and make sure to look for the features discussed in this article when deciding on a service provider.
