Katie brought up some great points about an IT infrastructure provider checklist in her recent “World News from The Planet” video from ad:tech. Regardless of where you’re planning to host, you should always ask probing questions to determine just what, exactly, your provider brings to the table. Here are some points to consider:
Network
How does the provider’s network compare to the competition? Can it survive multiple bandwidth partner failures? Can it neutralize a multiple-Gbps DDOS attack?
Support
Is support staff available whenever I need it? Can I talk to a human immediately if I have an emergency? Does the provider employ certified staff that can help me with advanced issues?
Facilities
Can the provider host my IT infrastructure in multiple data centers and in more than one city? Does the company own its own facilities (or is it renting)? Is the data center entirely within the hosting provider’s control?
Power
Can the company survive a catastrophic power event such as being cut off from utility power for more than a week? Is the provider on a dedicated power grid within its facility or does it share a power infrastructure with other companies? Is the company’s power generation and distribution infrastructure regional (i.e., one unit per section of a data center) or is it integrated, providing true N+1 or better redundancy?
Vendors
Does the company use high-quality, name-brand vendors with equipment under warranty or does it offer generic, off-brand solutions? Do its vendors consider the company one of their top customers?
Product Portfolio
Does the provider offer a wide range of upgrades and add-ons or am I limited to its predefined packages? If the provider doesn’t have exactly what I need, can I special-order it?
Without definitive answers to questions like these, a price quote alone is pretty meaningless. After all, it’s the total value of the service — and not just the monthly fee — that is the true measure of any service offering.
June 4th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
[...] their blog talked about redundancy and recovery from catastrophic events just a few short (pardon the pun) weeks ago. [...]
July 27th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Enough Power? What the-! You guys were only able to support max 40 amps per cab when a lot of the customers were maxing out that power when they reached half-rack.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
This comment appears to be related to our legacy colocation business, not to the dedicated server business it is referring to. Without additional information about the concern (ticket number, account number, data center, etc), I can’t really follow up with your apparent anonymous dissatisfaction … Sorry! If you have that information, please pass it along to me: khazard AT theplanet.com, and I’ll make sure someone gets in touch with you about it.