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Top 9 Considerations for Selecting Your Data Center

At FIBERTOWN, we believe extraordinary service should be ordinary. You should seek this same level of client commitment when you select your next data center.

Below we’ve highlighted the most important considerations. To see the full-length document about choosing a data center, use this link.

The Most Common Considerations

Location. Your data center should be away from coastlines to avoid major hurricane damage, out of flood plains, and outside of known tornado alleys. It should also have multiple routes to it and be located within driving distance for many employees.

Connectivity. The access you get to multiple telecommunications carriers is a major advantage of contracting with a data center. Therefore, ask critical questions. Is the facility carrier-neutral with diverse points of entry? If you need a high availability (HA) protocol, ask if that is an option. Is a service like Megaport, a platform that allows for a direct connection to cloud providers, available?

Reliability. Learning about reliability, or uptime, is a must. For a data center to ensure uptime, infrastructure for backup power and cooling should be in place. Inquire what a data center’s uptime is and how they accomplish this. (Hint – It should be at least five 9s or 99.999%. We at FIBERTOWN go a step further to provide 100% uptime.)

Service Level Agreement. Well-written SLAs include an assurance about response time, security protocols, bandwidth availability, and more. The SLA should also include what steps the data center will take if it fails to meet the contractual uptime.

The Most Overlooked Considerations

The remaining five considerations are more nuanced. Technology professionals in your company (or you) will guide your search for a location, connectivity, reliability, and a strong SLA. But, the other five components of a great data center relate to the humans who run it.

We can write article after article about redundant systems, circuits, cloud providers, etc., but it’s humans who are at the heart of a data center.

We discuss in more detail these human factors – reputation, on-site staffing, timeliness, workspace accommodations, and the ease of doing business – in more detail here. We’ve included questions to ask and how to gain insight into a data center’s customer relations.

Have Questions? FIBERTOWN Has Answers.

FIBERTOWN is a data center with two locations (Houston and Bryan-College Station, Texas), and we’re proud of the services we provide. The Top 9 Considerations document is a guide for choosing the best data center for your company.

If you have questions about the guide or about FIBERTOWN, we welcome them.

6 Redundancy Measures to Consider When Searching for a Data Center

The reason companies consider a data center is for a feeling of security – for an assurance that their hardware will be kept at optimal running conditions, no matter the circumstances. Because if this happens, then business continues as usual.

Yet, not all data centers are created equally, and if you contract with a subpar data center, your hardware and business continuity can’t be guaranteed. Below are six standards to consider when searching for a well-prepared, well-equipped data center, one you can count on during weather events, power outages, and more.

For a detailed look at these six standards, click here.

1. Accessibility via Automobile

Considering the roadways to and from your data center is critical. Determining if there are alternative routes is just as important since roadways may be blocked with debris during inclement weather.

Look for a data center with diverse roadways – major highways, plus smaller roads – leading to it. Employees can access hardware and continue working during catastrophic weather events.

2. Diverse Connectivity

Contracting with a data center that utilizes a variety of internet providers gives you “layers” of internet. If one provider isn’t available (bad weather, equipment issues, etc.), you still have internet access. Seek a data center with multiple, unique carriers and network providers with diverse paths of entry into the facility.

3. Redundant Power

Redundant power, or a power source in case the first source fails, is critical. Without it, equipment troubles, a backhoe digging in the wrong area, or severe weather shuts down power, possibly damaging your hardware and causing downtime. And downtime is expensive. Hardware is too.

Search for a data center with the infrastructure for redundant power. And ask, is the redundant power fully operational, partial, or distributed.

4. Redundant Cooling

Much like connectivity and power, a data center must have multiple ways to ensure cooling. Since the environment inside can never change, a data center’s infrastructure must be designed so a malfunction does not cause fluctuation in humidity or temperature.

Ask about the specifications for the data center’s HVAC system and what processes (for people and equipment) are in place to ensure a steady environment.

5. On-Site Staff Availability

This standard is often overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. With technology taking center stage in a data center, the human beings who staff it are the real superstars. Look for a data center that guarantees a trained on-site staff, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

6. Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Yes, the infrastructure for redundant power, cooling, and connectivity is vital. But, it’s the 100% uptime SLA that makes these measures the expectation…the norm…the standard for a data center.

Read carefully SLAs. Some data centers rely on insurance policies to provide 100% compensation if downtime occurs. Seek a data center with 100% uptime, even in the fine print.

About FIBERTOWN

We examine each of these six measures in more detail in this PDF. Download it and consider them as you search for a data center.

But know…at FIBERTOWN, we confidently meet – and exceed – these measures at both of our locations (Bryan-College Station and Houston).

We’d love to serve you and your company too.

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100% Uptime SLA at FIBERTOWN

FIBERTOWN is different from other colocation and data centers. For one, we’ve been under the same management for 25 years, and that is a rarity in our business. But, even bigger than that milestone is our dedication to customer service.

We offer 100% uptime SLA at FIBERTOWN, which makes us a rare bird in our field. Read below to see how this detail sets us apart from most competitors.

FIBERTOWN’s SLA

A service level agreement (SLA) outlines the types (or levels) of service to be provided by the vendor, which is FIBERTOWN in this case. It also defines the repercussions for failing to provide the agreed upon service to the customer.

For FIBERTOWN, our SLA offers 100% uptime for power, cooling, and connectivity. Notice, we work towards 100% uptime for all three critical components. Without power, your business is not online. And without cooling, hardware overheats, rendering it useless, even with power and connectivity. And promising 100% uptime for connectivity means nothing if there’s no power for your systems.

Hence…our 100% uptime SLA for power and cooling and connectivity.

What’s Common for Data Centers

For many data centers, you see “five-nines” or 99.999% uptime in their SLAs. That’s about five minutes of unplanned downtime per year. On the surface, five minutes do not sound like a large amount. However, Gartner found in a 2014 study that downtime costs a business, on average, more than $5,500 per minute. (The cost per minute has most likely increased.) And this amount doesn’t account for the headaches and frustrations (i.e., reboots, additional communication, etc.) that accompany unexpected downtime.

Furthermore, unplanned is a keyword in the above paragraph. Utilizing a colocation and data center like ours is specifically for protection and help during emergencies and unplanned events. Why go with someone who expects to have downtime?

Therefore, our goal is always 100% uptime. We believe that’s our purpose.

How FIBERTOWN’s SLA is Different

FIBERTOWN prides itself in having 100% uptime. For power. For cooling. And for connectivity. All three are business-critical. Therefore, we work to provide you all three components 100% of the time!

To offer this high level of service, we also answer customer service requests in 15 minutes. Plus, we help with server reboots for no additional cost so you don’t go down. (We don’t charge for simple tasks that take our staff under 15 minutes to do.)

It’s small details like these that make a big difference when unexpected situations occur in your business. You can read more about our dedicated customer service in this article about our response during Winter Storm Uri.

FIBERTOWN is Here to Help

If you’re looking for a data center, reach out. We’d love to talk more about our data centers in Bryan-College Station, Texas and in Houston, Texas. We’ll explain the ins and outs of our SLA, plus give you a tour.

Tag: SLA