Assessing Viable Locations for Your Data Center When the time comes for your business to build a server environment, it is essential that the people responsible for the Data Center's design have an opportunity to provide input into where it is constructed. Traditionally, upper management decides what property to purchase, based upon a variety of a company's wants, needs, and business drivers. Other purchase considerations might include a parcel's price tag, its proximity to a talented labor pool, advantageous tax rates, or the desire to have a corporate presence in a particular geographic area. Whatever the drivers are, a property's suitability to house a Data Center must be among them. Purchasing or leasing a site without considering this greatly hampers the Data Center's capability to protect company servers and networking devices. Not making this a consideration also invariably leads to additional expense, either to retrofit the land's undesirable characteristics or to add more infrastructure to compensate for them.
An ideal Data Center location is one that offers many of the same qualities that a Data Center itself provides a company:
* Protection from hazards
* Easy accessibility
* Features that accommodate future growth and change
These qualities are fairly obvious, like saying that it is easier for an ice chest to keep drinks chilled when it is also cold outside. Less apparent are what specific characteristics improve or hamper a property's usability as a Data Center location and why.
Building Codes and the Data Center Site
The first step when evaluating an undeveloped property's suitability as a Data Center site is a determination of how the property is zoned. Zoning controls whether a server environment is allowed to be built there at all. Zoning is done in a majority of countries and reflects how the local government expects a parcel of land to be used. Some classifications prohibit a Data Center.
The first step when evaluating an undeveloped property's suitability as a Data Center site is a determination of how the property is zoned. Zoning controls whether a server environment is allowed to be built there at all. Zoning is done in a majority of countries and reflects how the local government expects a parcel of land to be used. Some classifications prohibit a Data Center.
Site Risk Factors
Every parcel of land comes with unique hazards. Knowing the hazards associated with any property upon which you consider placing a Data Center is very useful and should be a serious consideration.
Every parcel of land comes with unique hazards. Knowing the hazards associated with any property upon which you consider placing a Data Center is very useful and should be a serious consideration.
Undermentioned is a list of hazards that you should be caeful about when choosing your site.
* Natural Disasters
* Natural Disasters
* Seismic Activity
* Ice Storms
* Hurricanes
* Tornadoes
* Flooding
* Landslides
* Fire
* Pollution
* Electromagnetic Interference
* Vibration
* Political Climates
* Flight Paths
Evaluating Physical Attributes of the Data Center Site
Once you are aware of the risk factors facing a potential Data Center site, it is time to assess the physical features of the property by answering the following questions:
Where is the site?
Is it easy to reach?
Does it have existing structures?
If so, how suited are they to housing a server environment?
Specifically, how well does the site support the key design strategies for constructing a productive Data Center?
Remember, the prerequisites for your Data Center to be robust, modular, flexible, standardized, and to intuitively promote good practices by users are mentioned below.
1.Relative Location
2.Accessibility
3.Disaster Recovery Options
4.Pre-Existing Infrastructure
5.Power Analysis
6.Cooling Capabilities
7.Structured Cabling
8.Amenities and Obstacles
* Clearances
* Weight issues
* Loading dock placement
* Freight elevator specifications
* Miscellaneous problem areas
* Distribution of key systems
9.Clearances
Is there enough contiguous floor space to house your Data Center?
Is there enough contiguous floor space to house your Data Center?
How tall are the doorways?
How wide are the halls?
What's the distance from floor to ceiling?
10.Weight Issues
11.Loading Dock
12.Freight Elevators
13.Problem Areas
14.Distribution of Key Systems
These tips will help you and your start up organization to identify a proper place to manage your services. You might also be off-shoring, but a good built up Data Center will serve you a greater purpose.
