When a firm is in the process of selecting a location for its colocation data center, it will often encounter a number of variables that need to be taken into consideration. The process of selecting a site is extremely important for the majority of businesses. This is not only due to the fact that the chosen site or provider will be hosting mission-critical business services, but also due to the fact that the selected site will most likely continue to house those mission-critical platforms and systems for the foreseeable future. Due to the fact that actions related to site selection are often carried out only once or twice, it is essential that all relevant criteria be assessed.
Geography is often not taken into account when choosing a location, or at best, only part of it is looked into. The majority of companies that operate colocation data centers don’t really do anything to assist in the process. Even though many colocation data centers keep track of how reliable their hardware is and how safe their facilities are, geography is sometimes overlooked as a way to measure a facility’s ability to serve its customers well.
There are a lot of things to think about while searching for a new or extra colocation provider. Some of these things include network resilience, security and scalability. However, the location of the facility that you decide to use is just as significant in terms of how simple it will be to operate your business and how well it will satisfy all of your goals in selecting colocation.
Why is it important to consider geography when selecting your colocation data center:
The following is a list of some of the reasons why:
Keeping oneself within reach all the time
It should come as no surprise that the fundamental idea behind colocation is that your hardware will be maintained in an off-site data center. You will continue to have control of your equipment, but the colocation provider will be responsible for ensuring that your equipment has access to accommodation and the network. In most cases, you or one of your employees will be entrusted with the responsibility of traveling to the colocation data center in order to fix any technical difficulties that may arise, as well as anytime any equipment has to be added, updated, or deleted. Consequently, for this reason, it makes good sense to opt for a colocation data center that is situated in a location that either you or your coworkers can quickly reach whenever the need arises.
A multi-locational approach
One last thing to think about is how big of a splash you’re creating on the international stage. Instead of relying on your facility in the UK, it may be important to employ a data center that is local to the market you are operating in. Maintaining your hardware on your own is likely to be both expensive and cumbersome, so it is imperative that the foreign facility you choose has a dependable managed service offering. However, even if your company is primarily focused on the UK market, it may still be beneficial to choose more than one location in order to have a more diversified strategy to protect your operations. Alternatively, you may use one facility for storing essential data and systems and another one for storing newly developed initiatives or breakthroughs. You will discover that using a variety of approaches is not only an excellent method for maintaining the independence of individual company divisions but also a practical technique in light of the peculiar circumstances we are now experiencing. Whether you decide to develop your own infrastructure in-house or would rather depend on an outsourced provider, the location of your colocation data center is an important consideration to take into account. If it’s true that you shouldn’t worry about how far away the IT infrastructure is from the business, then it’s also true that not all solutions are the same in terms of the risks and the political climate where they are located.
The location of your colocation data center is very important since it has a direct bearing on the technical capabilities it offers, the expenses associated with those capabilities, and the type of governance it affords the data infrastructure. But what are the most important aspects to take into account?
These include features from the fields of economics, politics, and society, as well as those from the field of technology. Let’s have a look:
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Political stability
When initially analyzed, the political climate of the host nation may not seem to be relevant to the process of constructing an information technology infrastructure. However, as with any investment, it is best to choose a country that is safe and has a stable government. Political disagreements should stay within the democratic system, and violence should be rare, if not nonexistent.
But how can we judge this without spending months learning about the subtleties of the country’s history and the events that are happening there right now? Here is where the help of foreign experts is needed. The index of political stability and absence of violence is a rating that is generated yearly by the World Bank. This index is an excellent metric to use since it measures the absence of violence and the presence of political stability.
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Economic Convenience
When considering whether or not to make an investment, it is obvious that any business owner worth their salt would weigh in things like the cheap cost of raw materials and labor, as well as any taxes that are currently in effect.
Even in the case of the location of your colocation data center, you should take into consideration the price of electricity, the cost of the IT equipment itself, and the expenses of employees. You should also take into consideration the fact that greater charges may also give you better quality services or facilities and as a result, provide the greatest assurance of safety and continuity for your organization.
The cost of real estate should also be taken into consideration as an additional expense. The global competitiveness index, which is also offered by the World Bank, is a decent estimate to use as a benchmark for assessing the economic worth of each market. This index was developed by the World Bank.
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Regulatory context
In this domain, the primary focus of our investigation is on the degree to which the right to privacy is respected in a variety of nations, as well as the existence or nonexistence of data protection legislation. In this regard, it is essential to evaluate the situation in each individual nation in light of the current best practices on an international level.
But that’s not the end of it. It is important to take into account the effectiveness of the court system since this will ensure that any disagreements may be settled quickly and fairly. When we talk about privacy, we also can’t and shouldn’t disregard the new European rule known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25, 2018, when picking the location of your IT infrastructure. This regulation came into effect on May 25, 2018.
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Technological innovation
The degree of connectivity and the dependability of the country’s power infrastructure are the two primary pillars that support the construction of a safe and continuously operational colocation data center. It is essential to situate the data gathering center in a nation that consistently ranks near the forefront of technological advancement and actively promotes the dissemination of the technologies that are the most cutting-edge and effective. It is possible to reference the World Economic Forum’s yearly ranking of countries based on the amount of internet bandwidth available and the degree of connection in order to get a better idea of which nations would be the best fit.
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The availability of a staff that is adequately qualified
The provision of an outsourced service that is both high-quality and trustworthy is contingent on the employment of skilled employees in a variety of roles, ranging from technical to managerial, as well as in security-related positions. By putting your company’s infrastructure in a country with a well-known higher education system that produces highly qualified workers, you can be sure that your provider will be able to hire top-notch employees who will be able to give your company more assurance.
Final words
The decision of where to locate your data center may be a difficult and time-consuming process that should not be taken lightly. Geographical factors could have a big effect on the price of the outsourced service as well as its safety and quality.
Research conducted in the UK and elsewhere in the world may provide us with a chance to better comprehend the issue. For instance, according to a comparison of Switzerland with the other major European nations that was carried out by ICT4Executive in 2015, the UK came in first position in terms of the economic, political, social, and technical elements that were just outlined. Because of this, the UK is commonly selected as the site for the data centers of big multinational corporations.
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