3 Tips for Choosing the Right Facility for Your Data Center

by Stephanie Faris on Tuesday, July 08 20:01

A business's data is its lifeblood, helping it serve its customers and employees, while also serving as a lasting record of work performed. Realizing that one disaster could wipe out years of work, businesses now make a conscious effort to house data in secure data centers, complete with offsite backup capability.

However, the most important step in choosing a data center is selecting the perfect facility. The building has to have the ability to keep data safe while also meeting the business's needs. Here are three major things a business should keep in mind while searching for the perfect facility to keep its data safe.

Functional

One of the main deciding factors in choosing a facility will be size. If a business is working with an existing building, it will need to determine whether enough space is available to house its data. Cabling, racks, server hardware, and Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPSs) are just part of the equipment that will go into this space. Businesses should also keep in mind the air conditioning equipment that will be required to keep equipment operating at a safe temperature. Accessibility is also important in a data center. Security is important, but your data center needs to also provide access to your own staff when needed. If repairs are necessary to the facilities themselves, will there be a way for repair personnel to have access without sacrificing security? Businesses must also consider the massive power required to keep a data center operational and make sure the facility can handle the load.

Disaster-Proof

While it's impossible to find a location that's completely free of risk for a natural disaster, there are some areas that are less prone to disaster than others. Setting your data center in a FEMA-certified flood zone would be a bad idea, for instance, especially when so many locations are available that are elevated above the flood plane. Cities like Cleveland, Ohio and Syracuse, New York are considered fairly disaster-proof based on a history free of hurricanes and tornadoes.

Security

When choosing a facility, security takes on all new meaning. You put great effort into ensuring your servers are secure from hacking attempts and malware, but what about the hardware? In choosing a location, security should be near the top of your list. Is the building in a remote location or in the center of a high-traffic area? If the premises isn't already behind a gate, could one be installed? Even the doors to gain access to the building should be suitable for setting up access to your standards. Once inside, your data center should also have a different layer of security, requiring employees to pass through an internal access door so that deliveries can be dropped off and picked up without personnel accessing the remainder of the data center.

Protecting your critical data is essential to the ongoing success of your business. When it's time to choose a facility for your data center, keeping security, functionality, and disaster protection in mind will help ensure your crucial business information stays safe no matter where your offices are located.