If you’re in the market for data centre services, there are a number of prerequisite questions to ask yourself and your future provider before
settling on the right service.
1. How secure is your data?
One of the first questions you should ask when choosing a data center in London is how secure your data will be. Being able to connect to your server securely is essential.
You should always ask how the company can help you to secure your information. While you want to be able to access your files and information with ease, hackers certainly shouldn’t.
Make sure you understand how the organisation can assist you in properly securing your critical data. Then you can determine how safe your data will be when you move your equipment into the data centre.
The right data company won’t have a problem disclosing their own network security practices. Once you learn about the process, you can decide if the company is the best choice for you, or whether you’re best looking elsewhere.
2. How reliable are they?
While your data’s security is of the utmost importance, you also need to access that data around the clock. You need to ensure your systems are immune from outages, and remain online regardless of any external factors.
A reliable data centre provider will use emergency backup generators to prevent any loss of power. That way, you won’t lose your connection during the middle of your workday, should there be external power issues at the facility.
When you send your information to a data centre, you risk not having full control. So after you ask about security, you should always ask about system reliability.
3. How flexible or scaleable are they?
If you’re looking to use a data centre, you should consider how flexible their services are. Your business may take on new projects or systems, and you want your facility operator to handle that with ease.
Even if you operate as a relatively small company, you never know when you’ll need to grow your business. You may have a sudden spike in customers or orders.
When that happens, you may need to house more equipment in your data centre. If you can’t grow your systems with a data center in London, you won’t be able to use it for very long.
4. What’s the capacity like?
Along with service flexibility, you should also consider the available connectivity capacity. Some data companies may have a firm limit on the amount of data you can transmit.
If you exceed your committed rate, you may need to upgrade, or be liable for overage charges.
5. Where is the data center in London?
You should also consider the location of the data center in London. When looking for a suitable facility, it doesn’t have to be right by your current office (in fact, it’s best that it isn’t).
However, if you ever need to visit your servers in person, the location will be important; it shouldn’t be too far away.
The location is also important in terms of accessing your information remotely. A closer data centre will make the connection quicker for certain types of critical, latency-sensitive data.
If you don’t need to access your service at lightning speed, you may be able to use a facility that’s farther away, particularly for DR. But if you need to access data in a second, you’ll want the service to be close by.
6. How secure is the facility?
Overall, London is a safe city, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to crime. You should also consider how a data company is securing physical infrastructure.
If they have a physical security system, consider how strong it is. Ask if they’ve ever had a physical attack on their systems.
See how secure the entry points are, along with entry to the data halls themselves. Make sure there’s some level of protection for your data.
7. Do they offer customer support?
When considering a data center in London, think about the available customer support options. You should be able to contact the company whenever you have issues.
Whether you can’t get to your data or you suspect there’s a power issue, you should be able to contact your provider and get the help you need.
Ideally, customer support would be available at all hours of the day. After all, you may need to access your information in the middle of the night.
You’ll want to ensure that there is a highly experienced team in charge of the facility, who can help you with support enquiries at any time.
Don’t be afraid to ask about the customer support team and the experience of individual team members.
The best data center in London
When searching for the best data center in London, you want to consider a few factors. Asking questions can be a great way to determine if a company is right for you.
From determining the location to the security of the data centre, you can use that information to make the best decision for your business.
Want to start looking at a data center in London? Check out our London Central location and book a tour.