Using a Philadelphia data center can be a practical way to serve the city of Philadelphia and the wider Delaware Valley metropolitan region. It can even potentially be used to serve major business hubs such as New York City. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about implementing a Philadelphia data center.
The opportunity to serve Philadelphia’s robust economy is, arguably, a good enough reason to implement a Philadelphia data center. Philadelphia is a key economic hub not just in Pennsylvania itself but in the whole Delaware Valley metropolitan region. In particular, the city has a significant financial services sector and is especially strong in venture capital.
Geographically, Philadelphia is roughly equidistant from Wilmington (DE) and Trenton (NJ). It is also relatively close to Baltimore (MD), Washington D.C., and New York City (NY). This means that Philadelphia can be used to provide relatively low-cost service to these areas.
Philadelphia also has all the practicalities covered for implementing data centers. It has robust infrastructure (both physical and digital), skilled workers, and a benign climate. Furthermore, it has a business-friendly environment and supportive policies for investment.
Overall the points to consider when choosing a Philadelphia data center are much the same as the points to consider when choosing a data center in any other location. There are, however, some points that have particular relevance for Philadelphia. Here are the key points you should consider and the main location-specific considerations.
The security and compliance measures needed for a Philadelphia data center are much the same as for any other location. For the most part, the focus needs to be on regular physical and digital security. Ensuring security against environmental hazards is much less of a concern.
With that said, Philadelphia does occasionally experience very heavy snow. A Philadelphia data center therefore needs to have measures in place to ensure it can maintain both uptime and access during these periods. Furthermore, when heavy snows melt, they can lead to floods, albeit usually fairly mild ones. Again, any Philadelphia data center will need to be prepared for this.
Reliability is typically measured in uptime, specifically the vendor’s uptime guarantee. To be considered meaningful, this should be contractually enforceable. The vendor’s service promise should be evaluated against their tier rating and their historical performance data.
There are several factors that go into ensuring reliability. Infrastructure is one of the most important. Climate control is less of an issue in a Philadelphia data center than in many other places. With that said, humidity is a persistent issue. Also, Philadelphia occasionally experiences extreme heat. This means that data centers do need to be able to implement robust cooling on demand.
For most organizations, the major infrastructure requirement is likely to be a robust, high-speed, low-latency internet connection. Overall, in a Philadelphia data center, this is unlikely to be an issue given that Philadelphia has very solid network infrastructure.
With that said, the quality of the network connection does partially depend on the vendor. It’s therefore important to check the vendor’s network infrastructure. You should also check the details of the vendor’s implementation. In particular, it’s advisable to check their support for carrier-neutrality, interconnectivity, and multicloud architecture. Even if none of these matter to you now, they may become important in the future.
Power and climate control are also important considerations. With power, the issue is less one of getting a regular mains supply or even a reliable backup supply. It’s managing energy efficiently so costs stay down and sustainability is maximized. Similarly, with climate control (which depends on power), the challenge is to deliver maximum results with minimum input.
If you’re planning to use vendor-supplied hardware, then you will need to check the range of options. You will also need to check the vendor’s support for customizations and scaling.
Even in places with robust network infrastructure, your choice of location is likely to have some level of influence on the quality of your network connection. If you want, or need, to have the highest possible speed, then it’s preferable to be near a network hub and/or your customers.
Being near a network hub or in a prime business location does, however, typically carry a price premium. That being so, if speed is less of an issue for you, it may be better to choose a location a bit further away from the main infrastructure hubs.
In addition to evaluating the Philadelphia data center facility itself, you should also evaluate the vendor that runs it. It’s important that they have not just the right skills and experience but also the right attitude to customer service.
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