Technology

Things to Know Before Buying Server Colocation UK

The primary purpose of colocation is to provide data center level support to businesses. Businesses, this way, do not have to build their own data center, which surely is an expensive and time-consuming task. 

A good UK colocation  provider maintains and offers their clients many primary facilities. Physical space, cooling, physical security, and teleco access for WAN assistance are all included.

How To Land Upon The Best Server Colocation UK Provider

Server colocation contracts are not short contracts and may last for years. So planning and research are crucial to the venture. In this article, we will tell you about 7 things you should consider before signing a contract. 

 

  • Power Density

Make sure that you and your provider both understand your power requirement very clearly. You should be able to tell in kilowatts or even megawatts. 

Providers intended for 5 kW per rack will occasionally try to support 10 kW per rack. Power and cooling limitations may lead to heavy power surcharge and push you out of list as a colocation candidate.

 

  • Floor Space

Spend some time thinking about rack consolidation and the costs of floor space. Keep in mind that if you rent more space at a colocation, it will not improve the performance or resilience. 

Better strategy would be to minimize the floor space requirements to cut down on costs throughout the contract, and many businesses have adopted it. By reducing the amount of space available for cheap servers and other racked equipment, they manage to control things like rack power density, cooling, and floor weight distribution. 

If the colocation provider can support the greater power and cooling density of full or higher racks, a client organisation may be able to fit more hardware into a smaller data centre footprint.

  • WAN Redundancy

Your ideal UK server colocation provider must be carrier neutral. The connectivity to varied network carriers is the top feature you should never compromise on, as you may have to pay separately for it as a client. 

Yes, it is out of the colocation provider’s job description to bear the telco costs. Only the colocation provider hosting a diverse range of network carriers brings competitive pricing for client businesses. Also, they allow redundant client connectivity.

 

  • Location

Stretch your mental muscle before deciding the location. You should know what has made you choose that location. For example, you have made your site strictly for DR. 

That is why you will choose a location within 100 miles of the main business. It should, however, be far enough away to provide protection from any calamity, such as a fire, flood, hurricane, or other threat, which is why a DR site is needed in the first place.

Alternatively, you may want to improve your global presence. Consider your target market and choose a provider with the appropriate facilities to serve that market.

Accessibility is all dependent on location, so make sure you choose the best one. When sites are remote, you need remote hands as IT staff cannot physically be there.

 

  • Contract & SLA Flexibility

Obtain and study the primary service agreement and service level agreement (SLA) of the prospective provider as soon as possible. Your legal, business, and IT teams should read the documents to address the critical contract items.

You should know every aspect about availability, response times and scalability. Discuss different concerns with server colocation UK providers and figure out their willingness to negotiate at the better terms. If it is too low, they could not be appropriate for business.

 

  • Compliance

Check to see if the colocation provider has the certifications or industry-recognized data centre tier levels that the supplier claims. For example, they might have the Uptime Institute’s Tier availability certification, the ISO’s class system, or the Telecommunication Industry Association’s level system.

They should, however, be able to defend their certification and accept third-party audits for validation, regardless of the certification. 

  • Security

Majority of them provide good security. However, it is better to review their security measures. Make sure that those measures are sufficient. Discuss adding more of them, for example, if desired, you could ask for client cameras within the rented floor space

 

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