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How to Choose a Co-location and Connectivity Partner
by Art Vacca, Peer 1 Networks For many growing Web-based businesses, there comes a time when in-house security, IT resources, bandwidth accessibility and climate controls become inadequate. Businesses seeking to avoid capital intensive infrastructure and staffing upgrades can turn to using co-location facilities designed specifically to address these pressing concerns. Co-locating your servers and critical IT functions at a secure, well-equipped data center can offer the freedom to focus on the myriad of other aspects in the E-commerce equation without having to worry about online delivery or performance. A foremost concern for many is physical location and proximity to the Internet's backbone. Be advised to place your co-located server strategically in a high tech hub within immediate proximity of critical Internet pipelines. The "environment" should contain state-of-the-art power, environmental and climate controls to ensure your hardware and applications are always fully functional. You will generally be offered one of several "cabinet" options – octal, quarter, half, full cabinets and custom cages. Typically, each of these cabinets will include 1 Cat 5 cable drop. Along with this 100 Base-T Cat 5 wiring, should come the enabling of 100Mb/sec connection via Fast Ethernet equipment at a minimum. Other connectivity options include GigE, OC3, OC12, OC48 and scalable bandwidth where you pay for what you use. Access is also key. "Best practices" in co-location include offering 24/7 access granting you complete control of your equipment with the added assurance of round - the - clock security, monitoring and support. A "neutral" co-location service allows you to buy bandwidth from other carriers. Some co-lo providers will allow you to negotiate your own bilateral peering agreements that enables you to connect through the switch fabric with other customers, non-customers and Internet carriers. For Website's with round-the-clock global traffic and mission critical throughput demands, Global Load Balancing is a key advantage of your co-location and connectivity partner. By balancing traffic across multiple servers in geographically distributed data centers, the service provider strategically routes customer requests to your closest available server resulting in reduced latency and improved performance. This planned redundancy means zero downtime no matter what, even if your servers are crippled through a catastrophic event, DOS attack or just out for routine upgrades and maintenance. Realtime, online traffic reporting is yet another advantage to leverage in a top-quality connectivity partner. "Fractions of a second can mean the difference between success and failure to our traders," said Peter Beck, President of SwiftTRADE, Canada’s leader in direct-access trading. "It was crucial for us to find a solution with minimum latency in order to deal with a high number of very time sensitive transactions. SwiftTRADE selected our company, Peer 1 Networks, for our demonstrated ability to provide the very best high performance bandwidth. We have continued to deliver on that promise. To contact Peer 1 Networks with questions about your Website's performance, bandwidth requirements, or for a free quotation, contact Art Vacca in Seattle at (206) 571-4325 or make a request via Peer 1's rapid-response request form at http://www.peer1.net/en/getaquote.asp [24x7] |
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