3 Step Guide Disaster Recovery with Data Center Colocation Planning

Why data center colocation for disaster recovery?
Data centers are the best place to store and host your business data. The fault-tolerant and resilient infrastructure, advanced security systems, better storage and network services at the world class data centers attract the IT managers to collocate data offsite.

Outsourcing your disaster recovery will make you lose control on your data but with data center colocation, you can have control over the hardware, software and other instances. Moreover, a tech-support team of IT professionals at the data center are always up and available (24x7) to troubleshoot any issue related to your server.

Cost advantages: Data center colocation will prove to be the most economical option compared to any other disaster recovery services. The users need to pay a small monthly fees only for the space being used to store the server/equipment.

Here are the 3 steps for planning disaster recovery with colocation data center

1. Risk assessment: First of all, assess the possible risks that can cause damage to the IT infrastructure. That may be any security vulnerability, some suspicious employees or some unauthorized intrusion or natural disaster threats like earthquake, hurricane, tornadoes etc.

2. Plan an effective disaster recovery plan: Data center colocation is one of the top disaster recovery solutions. Move your mission critical business data to an offsite location which is primarily designed for storage, hosting, network and security solutions for businesses, i.e. data centers. Colocation services are billed monthly only for the space used by your server or the equipment. So, it much more economical option as compared to any other outsourced disaster recovery solutions.

3. Choose the right data center: But, IT managers must be enough cautious while choosing the right data center colocation for best disaster recovery planning. Factors to look in the colocation providers for effective disaster recovery:

· Proven industry experience: Look for the clients who have been served by the colocation service provider. The more the industry experience, the better will be the quality of services.

· Data center location: Choose a data center which is located in a disaster-free zone, so that there is no threat of flood or earthquake or any other natural disasters.

· Redundant infrastructure: A data center with N+1 or 2N redundancy of infrastructure is an ideal facility for colocation server hosting. It will ensure uninterrupted performance of networks and servers leading to higher uptime.

· 24x7 on-site support: A constant tech support, round the clock surveillance, network monitoring, fire alarm etc. ensures data safety.

Moreover, you are allowed to have significant control over software, hardware and other server instances which is not possible in other outsourced DR solutions. No other service is as effective and efficient as colocation services for disaster recovery planning.