Markley Networking Exchange 2011
This year's Markley Networking Exchange held at their impressive 5th floor One Summer Street location didn't disappoint. With numerous companies represented, tours of the facility and ample educational opportunities, the event was a great chance to network and learn from New England's sizable data center community.
FindADataCenter.com contributor Steve McCarthy gave a talk on “Finding the Right High Capacity Networks for Colocation.” The breakout session shed light on how data center customers should consider their telecom and data networking needs as a primary factor in a data center decision. Typically, data center selection is based location, power, space, security and more, but McCarthy’s contention is that connectivity should be one of the first things considered.
“One of the most important components [of site selection] is almost ignored,” said McCarthy about network connectivity. “Data centers often have a ‘carrier neutral’ strategy, but that sometimes means ‘you can bring in whoever you want’. In that case, there’s considerable expense and time needed to complete a data center project. You wouldn’t do that with power. That would be ridiculous. So why do it with telecom networks?”
McCarthy also covered specific benefits to conducting due diligence on carriers at data centers:
- Checking options helps keeps costs down
- Researching various data centers may help you keep your current carrier(s) and network
- Smarter planning for future growth means scalability and cost savings
- Due diligence may shed light on non-standard providers because they’re unpublished
- Simple supply/demand dynamics: the more players there are, the better your price and SLA will be
McCarthy also warned of not keeping your data center options open.
“We have been doing this long enough that we have seen a consistent pattern of customers paying 2-3x more for data centers without network options,” warned McCarthy. “You may also have issues with diversity — true diversity — and put yourself at risk when one outage takes down multiple providers on a single route.”
According to McCarthy, by sourcing information about data centers in the desired locations, companies can avoid the pitfalls and arm themselves with negotiating leverage with both data centers and carriers. McCarthy suggests using FiberLocator, a leading database of telecom and data center intelligence, to help conduct the necessary research. FiberLocator is available in an online application for self-service research or the data and maps can be provided as a service.
Visit www.FiberLocator.com or call 877-239-3043 to learn more about data center due diligence as well as a new Data Center Concierge service which will research providers and schedule data center tours free of charge.
FindADataCenter.com contributor Steve McCarthy gave a talk on “Finding the Right High Capacity Networks for Colocation.” The breakout session shed light on how data center customers should consider their telecom and data networking needs as a primary factor in a data center decision. Typically, data center selection is based location, power, space, security and more, but McCarthy’s contention is that connectivity should be one of the first things considered.
“One of the most important components [of site selection] is almost ignored,” said McCarthy about network connectivity. “Data centers often have a ‘carrier neutral’ strategy, but that sometimes means ‘you can bring in whoever you want’. In that case, there’s considerable expense and time needed to complete a data center project. You wouldn’t do that with power. That would be ridiculous. So why do it with telecom networks?”
McCarthy also covered specific benefits to conducting due diligence on carriers at data centers:
- Checking options helps keeps costs down
- Researching various data centers may help you keep your current carrier(s) and network
- Smarter planning for future growth means scalability and cost savings
- Due diligence may shed light on non-standard providers because they’re unpublished
- Simple supply/demand dynamics: the more players there are, the better your price and SLA will be
McCarthy also warned of not keeping your data center options open.
“We have been doing this long enough that we have seen a consistent pattern of customers paying 2-3x more for data centers without network options,” warned McCarthy. “You may also have issues with diversity — true diversity — and put yourself at risk when one outage takes down multiple providers on a single route.”
According to McCarthy, by sourcing information about data centers in the desired locations, companies can avoid the pitfalls and arm themselves with negotiating leverage with both data centers and carriers. McCarthy suggests using FiberLocator, a leading database of telecom and data center intelligence, to help conduct the necessary research. FiberLocator is available in an online application for self-service research or the data and maps can be provided as a service.
Visit www.FiberLocator.com or call 877-239-3043 to learn more about data center due diligence as well as a new Data Center Concierge service which will research providers and schedule data center tours free of charge.
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