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Develop a Co-location Strategy

Successful data center co-location strategies are a function of cost and vendor selection.

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Your Challenge

  • Organizations encounter significant capital expenditures, when building or updating their aging data center facilities, are faced with a difficult build vs. buy decision.
  • Many organizations are hesitant to outsource the data center because servers are housed outside the facility and not within their direct reach.
  • Co-location services have turned into a commodity where vendor offerings are underpinned by the same basic set of services.

Our Advice

Critical Insight
  • Mid-sized organizations generally achieve a Tier 2 data center environment, at most, due to cost and resources. Co-location facilities generally offer Tier 3 or higher facilities where organizations can realize benefits of higher reliability and availability.
  • A vendor’s engagement practices should be thoroughly examined during the selection process. Because basic services offered by co-location vendors are largely commoditized, vendor selection will often be based on price and service.
  • The decision to outsource often results in a significant decrease in both OPEX and CAPEX (when building or renovating the data center) for facility costs such as power, cooling, standby power, and fire protection.
Impact and Result
  • Justify the build vs. buy decision using business requirements and budget scenarios.
  • Maximize success by aligning business requirements and vendor offerings with predetermined criteria to aid in the selection process for a co-location vendor.
  • Validate decisions and perform due diligence on short-listed vendors by conducting site visits to vendor facilities.

Get to Action

  1. Determine if the organization is a fit for co-location.

    Gather facility requirements and baseline cost information, and validate the build vs. buy decision.

  2. Understand the market and vendor offerings.

    Review the market for basic, managed, and recovery services, as well as vendor engagement practices.

  3. Evaluate vendor offerings.

    Align vendor offerings with business requirements, evaluate vendor proposals, and perform vendor site visits.

  4. Manage the vendor relationship.

    Construct comprehensive SLAs and assess the co-location relationship annually.

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Tags

Data center, data center design, build or buy, build vs. buy, buy vs. build, data center availability, data center build, co-location, colocation, build server room, data center co-location, co-location vendors, data center backup, co-location RFP, co-location site visits, building a data center, data center budget

Related Content

  1. Data Center Co-location SLA & Service Definition Template
  2. Data Center Co-location Annual Contract Assessment Checklist
  3. Storyboard: Develop a Co-location Strategy
  4. Co-location Basic Services Vendor Selection Criteria Checklist
  5. Co-location Managed Services Vendor Selection Criteria Checklist

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See how all the steps you need to take come together, with tools and advice to help with each task on your list.

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Successful data center co-location strategies are a function of cost and vendor selection.

Companies Who Helped

  • Federal Air Transport Security Authority
  • United Way of Calgary and Area
  • Municipal Police Services
  • Siltronic Corporation
  • SSAB

Solution Road Map

Other Solution Sets in Outsourcing/Shared & Managed Services
1. Develop a Co-location Strategy
Successful data center co-location strategies are a function of cost and vendor selection.
2. Manage SLAs with Co-location Providers
The SLA is about communication, not penalties.
3. Vendor Landscape: Canadian Co-location/Managed Services
Sort through disguised differentiation in the market to get back to an apples-to-apples comparison.
4. Vendor Landscape: US Co-location/Managed Services
Learn how to navigate the super-sized US market.
5. Vendor Landscape: European Co-location/Managed Services
Rome wasn't built in a day. Take the time to evaluate the European market.
View the full Solution Road Map