Georgia is known as one of the most business-friendly states in the USA. It is therefore unsurprising that it also has one of the USA’s largest economies. As the state capital, Atlanta is particularly strong economically. It can therefore make a lot of sense to implement an Atlanta data center.
For many organizations, the main reason for implementing an Atlanta data center is the fact that Atlanta is a major business hub in the southeastern United States. It is also a convenient base from which to serve other cities in both Georgia and neighboring states.
Additionally, the city offers excellent digital and physical infrastructure, a mild climate, good physical safety, and minimal chance of civil unrest.
The process of finding an Atlanta data center can be divided into five key stages. Here is an overview of them.
This initial step itself can usually be divided into five stages.
Assess your organization’s needs and objectives: Evaluate how the data center can contribute to increased efficiency, productivity, and competitive advantage. Engage key stakeholders from IT, operations, and executive leadership to gather diverse perspectives on this.
Define your technical requirements and priorities: What hardware and software will you need to run your applications and services? What level of network connectivity is required to ensure that your users are served at an appropriate speed? What data will you keep in the data center and is it covered by any compliance programs?
Define your location requirements and priorities: In the context of location, the key points to consider are security, accessibility, and infrastructure, particularly network connectivity. You might also want to think about proximity to your key operational locations. Keep in mind that your choice of location will probably significantly influence the cost of an Atlanta data center.
Consider what the future might bring: Any form of migration is a disruption and most organizations want and need to keep disruptions to a minimum. It’s therefore advisable to look for an Atlanta data center that can accommodate your organization as it develops.
Set your budget: Technically, you can do this at any point. It can, however, make sense to do this at the end of this first stage. By this point, you will know your needs, wants, and priorities. You can therefore set a more accurate budget. Ideally, you will split your budget into a budget for upfront costs and a budget for ongoing (running) costs.
You will probably find all the information you need to evaluate the facilities of an Atlanta data center on the vendor’s website. Here are the five key points you should check.
Security and compliance: A vendor is unlikely to give you low-level details of their security processes. They should, however, give you an overview of their physical and digital security. This includes how they ensure business continuity and disaster recovery. They should also state what data security frameworks and compliance programs they support.
Reliability and uptime: Look for the tier rating, the uptime guarantee, and the facility’s historical performance data.
Connectivity options: In addition to checking the speed and latency parameters, check for carrier-neutrality, interconnectivity, and multi-cloud support.
Power management and climate control: Any Atlanta data center can be expected to have robust power infrastructure and effective climate-control measures. Energy efficiency and sustainability can, however, be competitive differentiators between vendors.
Flexibility: This can be evaluated by looking at support for customization and scalability. You may also be able to assess how much flexibility a vendor can build into any contract.
Assess vendor quality: You can do an initial assessment of vendor quality from public sources such as customer reviews. It’s worth doing this before assessing costs to avoid any (unconscious) bias towards lower-cost vendors. The best vendors may not be the lowest cost but they will be the highest value.
Evaluate the costs and pricing structure(s): Many vendors will have default tariffs and pricing structures shown on their website (or accessible via pricing calculators). If they don’t, they will probably make this information available upon request. Make sure you are clear about what is and is not included in the stated prices.
Approach the vendor’s sales team: The last step is to approach the vendor’s sales team for more detailed information about the facility. Ideally, the sales team will arrange for you to tour it and speak to their staff. If you are happy with the outcome of this final evaluation, then you can proceed to the next step. This may be to accept a default pricing tariff or to enter into contract negotiations.
Discover the DataBank Difference today:
Hybrid infrastructure solutions with boundless edge reach and a human touch.
