Pittsburgh not only has a robust economy of its own but also provides easy access to major business centers, including Washington D.C.. This means that a Pittsburgh data center can become a significant business asset. Here is a quick guide to what you need to know about implementing one.
The first good reason to choose a Pittsburgh data center is to give the best possible service to the city of Pittsburgh itself. The city of steel has now become the city of high technology, especially robotics. It’s also a major player in other science, technology, engineering, and math sectors as well as finance. All of these industries rely on data center services.
Another reason for implementing a Pittsburgh data center is that it can be a strategic base from which to serve other areas. Pittsburgh is roughly equidistant from Columbus (OH), Baltimore (MA), and Washington D.C. as well as Cleveland (also PA).
Pittsburgh has excellent infrastructure (both physical and digital) plus skilled workers but is still relatively low cost. It also has a benign climate and, overall, is very safe. There is minimal risk of either severe weather or major civil unrest.
Here is a quick guide to the five key points you should check when looking for a Pittsburgh data center.
Although Pittsburgh is a relatively safe environment, you still need to be satisfied that any Pittsburgh data center you may want to use has robust physical and digital security. These are both essential to achieving compliance with data security frameworks (such as ISO 27001) and data security compliance programs.
On that note, you will also need to check which data security frameworks and compliance programs a data center supports. When doing so, remember to think about what the future might bring. You want to avoid being forced into a data center migration that you could have avoided.
A modern Pittsburgh data center should be able to guarantee almost 100% uptime. In fact, some data centers now offer a 100% uptime guarantee. To be meaningful, this guarantee should be written into the service contract and backed with penalties. Even so, it’s still advisable to check the data center’s historical performance data.
Reliability depends on resilience. This refers to the data center’s ability to withstand and recover from unforeseen events, such as power outages or natural disasters. You can get a good idea of a Pittsburgh data center’s level of resilience by checking its tier rating. If this looks promising, you can then go into more detail with the vendor.
For example, you will want to check their backup and redundancy measures and their protocols for incident management, business continuity, and disaster recovery.
The three main infrastructure points all organizations will need to check are networking options, power capacity, and climate control. Organizations that use vendor-supplied hardware will also need to check customization and scalability options.
Networking options: Data centers need to implement networking infrastructure that maximizes speed and minimizes latency. It’s also useful if they support networking functionality that is relevant for organizations. This would typically include carrier-neutrality, interconnectivity, and support for multicloud architecture.
Power capacity and reliability: You need to check what voltage(s) a Pittsburgh data center vendor can support along with the vendor’s power sources and backup systems. The vendor’s energy efficiency is also likely to be a key consideration for many organizations. Some organizations will also want to see a commitment to maximizing the use of clean and sustainable energy.
Climate control: Although Pittsburgh has a benign climate, it’s still important that a Pittsburgh data center has effective cooling systems and humidity control.
Customization and scalability: The more customizability and scalability a vendor can support, the easier it will be for organizations to continue to use the data center as their needs, wants and priorities change.
Like most cities, Pittsburgh can be divided into neighborhoods. Each of these neighborhoods has its own characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages.
Neighborhoods with major network hubs and/or prime business districts tend to carry a price premium. This may be worth it for some organizations. For others, however, it can be better to accept slightly lower-grade infrastructure in return for a more economical price.
Assessing the vendor’s reputation within the industry provides insights into their reliability and service quality. A vendor with a positive reputation is likely to have a track record of delivering robust and secure data center solutions.
Customer references serve as valuable indicators of a vendor’s performance and customer satisfaction. In particular, they can help potential customers evaluate the vendor’s ability to meet service-level expectations and address specific business requirements.
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