Questions to ask potential data centre providers

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This is according to Debbie Pretorius, GM of MWeb Business, who points out that with so many different options available, it can be difficult to determine which solution is best for one's business.

"There is no question that building, owning and managing your data centre infrastructure and supporting services can be an expensive exercise, diverting you from your real focus - running your business. However, many businesses have legitimate concerns about having their vital data hosted offsite. With proper investigation, all these concerns can be addressed," she said.

"Before starting on the outsourcing journey, it's important that the business understands what issues it hopes to resolve by outsourcing its data needs, as well as the types of services it may need from an offsite data centre," she added.

"It is also vital that the business understands all aspects of its data needs - what it runs and what it runs it on; how much space it is going to need in a data centre and how much server power it will require."

Frequently required services

The most frequently required services from an offsite data centre are:

• Co-location: This is for businesses that have their own servers and have outgrown their in-house data centre; need more space to house new servers and network equipment; or don't want the hassle of seeing to the security, environmental control and so on so necessary to keep servers safe, secure and operational.

• Managed services: Many businesses would prefer not to have to hire IT personnel to manage equipment, applications and infrastructure. They may want to provide their own hardware and assets, but want the data centre to manage everything for them. Or they may not want to concern themselves at all with purchasing and maintaining hardware, as well as upgrades and patches and fixes and licences and, and, and...

• Cloud: This allows businesses literally to outsource everything, use the provider's servers, storage and network on a pay-for-use model.

However, before signing on the dotted line with a data centre provider that will house your critical data infrastructure, there are 10 questions every business should ask:

1. Location: If you are co-locating, or need to get to the facility to update or service your equipment, is the data centre conveniently located and easily accessible at all times - including rush hour and outside normal business hours?

2. Flexibility: Will the data centre provider be able to meet your needs now and in the future? How flexible is the provider in terms of accommodating your needs? Will you be able to change from one solution to another? Will you be able to upscale or downscale as the need arises?

3. Scalability: Will the provider be able to scale with you overtime? Does this include the availability of additional space, power and connectivity?

4. Reliability, reliability and reliability: Reliability is measured as uptime. What level of uptime is the provider able to offer? A reliable provider should have five 9s uptime, meaning it is reliable at least 99.999% of the time.

5. Business stability: How financially stable is the provider? How committed is that provider to South Africa? You don't want to spend a lot of time and money investing in a data centre that may not be around, or could be under different management, within a few years.

6. Disaster recovery: What type of disaster plan does the data centre have in the event of a fire, or flood?

7. Power: Does the data centre have sufficient power to keep the servers up and the temperature in the centre down - even when running at full capacity?

8. Back-up power: Are there sufficient generators to keep the data centre operational should there be a major power outage? For how long? And how often the generators used, checked etc?

9. Contracts and SLAs: Before committing to anything, review the contracts and service level agreements carefully.

10. Network performance: How stable and secure is the data centre's connectivity to the outside world? Are there redundant connections? How fast is the data centre's connection? How will high traffic volumes into and out of the data centre affect your access to your data?