TRUSTED DATA CENTER PROVIDERS

Be an IT hero and choose a provider
on whom your entire organization can rely.

Identifying who the real, trusted data center providers are can be a difficult endeavor. Everyone's website claims the same thing. So, how can you be sure that the provider you choose to host your company's most critical assets will still deserve your trust in the days immediately following your signature on an agreement?

Key considerations when comparing data center providers

Gotchas - Pricing Traps

A few of the largest data center providers are famous for leading with pricing that seems competitive, until you get the final all-in number. Classic used-car sticker shock. This is a quick indicator of what's to come. Run!

Incident Response, RFO

When things go wrong, will your data center provider bring you in the loop quickly or leave you with lights off and no answers. Ask for the company's customer RFO process and ensure direct lines to people that matter for escalation.

Quarterly Business Review

Trusted data center providers have frequent, in-depth conversations with customers to identify how they can drive more value. QBR's ensure you have regular business-level touch points and a recurring forum to drive positive change.

Overall Responsiveness

How quickly does the provider respond to your emails, voicemails? Do quotes take forever? Data center layouts/design docs lagging? This is an indicator of a provider who is understaffed or does not value your business. Future problems.

The Ex-Customers

Unless they are new, every data center provider can find a few happy referral customers, otherwise they would be out of business. Ex-customers fill in the worst-case scenario. Trusted providers may give you access.

The Uptime SLA

Downtime is a killer. Most colocation providers offer some type of uptime SLA for protection, but the devil is in the details. Identify a shady provider by looking at the SLA language: back-ended credits, sliding scales, only if's.