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Collocation is not a commodity

It’s no secret the economy has been tough recently and cost cutting is a natural, knee-jerk reaction during periods of economic contraction. Regardless of the industry, cutting costs can be a potentially dangerous situation if not carefully analyzed and executed. This holds true when it comes to your data management.

Think of it this way: If you change widget suppliers to reduce overhead, quality may suffer leading to increased customer returns, decreased customer satisfaction or worse yet, losing the customer and their future sales altogether. The same is true when it comes to collocation. It is imperative to remember that collocation is not a commodity, contrary to what a real estate broker representing a large tier 1 carrier recently tried unsuccessfully to convince me.

When searching for your next collocation facility, pay heed to some old adages and clichés such as “you get what you pay for” and “if it is too good to be true, it probably is.” The bottom line is that there are real costs that facility providers have to pay whether it is the cost of cabinets, cooling units, or electricity. They can only lower their price to a certain level before it becomes unprofitable. Then they either price themselves out of business or find things to cut corners on like preventative maintenance in order to stay afloat.

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