Using a shared colocation facility has significant advantages for your business. In order to enjoy these benefits, you need to have a few things in mind before proceeding to make this investment.   

We all know the main benefits of colocation in a shared space. Lower costs of management, access to expensive resources (cooling and other data center components), consultation and IT expertise offered by colocation providers, security against physical disasters and digital fraud, lower maintenance costs.  

However, in order to enjoy these benefits, you need to develop a strategy based on the following tips as a guide before and while you are setting up systems using a colocation facility.  

1. Ask as many questions as possible 

Working with an advanced colocation provider, your first point of contact will most likely be a sales engineer. Do not hesitate to ask all possible questions. In addition, do not hesitate to ask access to more technical staff who will inform you about more in-depth details.  

Ask not only what is necessary at the beginning, for example, availability of components. Define details that will be useful at a later stage. For example, make sure that you will be able to ship them a new component and they will be able to install it. If not, make this part of your agreement.  

By saying the agreement, be sure to read the contract carefully. Pay attention to every detail, review everything twice, and define what may be ambiguous.  

2. Be specific on networking  

A lot of IT managers tend to explore only the capabilities of the network options available at the data center. As this is important, it is even more important to ask for billing information and match operational requirements, networking offerings with billing. The result should be balancing your costs with your expectations in terms of return. 

3. Use quality parts 

Your new colocation will most likely be far from the base. To that, you have to make sure the parts you use are reliable and from well-known manufacturers. Of course, apart from reliable, components have to be compatible.  

4. Be ready for failure 

Availability of components and spare parts is key to recover quickly, in case of failure strikes. Emergency tests may be required at some point. Yet, correct planning for failure will save you time and cost of traveling at some point.  

Have more questions about your colocation strategy? Contact our team here at Lamda Hellix.