The best thing to do, before a business should try the services offered by collocation centers, is to carefully check if these colo companies can give the benefits as you expected them to give, just like the other companies which offer the same service. This is simply because many of these companies different various benefit to lure new customers. How would you be able to get the best services if you do not find the best?

If you have any doubts or cobwebs in your mind, you should not hesitate to ask a colo vendor during a physical tour of solo site. You can ask for security arrangements. The colo vendor must be able to successfully persuade you of their security features, such as the access control systems, the on-site security personnel or the surveillance and other security measures in case of threats from fires, storms, flood and all other forms of natural disaster which may damage your colo equipment.

How fast is the link between the colo facility’s network and your equipment is also dependent on the capacity of the bandwidth you can use. If your link from the facility is only 100 Mbps, basically, that’s all you can get, even when the colo facility uses multiple OC-X connections.

It is also vey necessary to check the uptime record of the collocation facility. You should be able to get the so-called historical data on the frequency of power outages including its duration. Your business must be guaranteed 99.9 percent of the uptime result.

Since colo centers offer more services, be sure to ask questions during the tour when you can access your facility, since some colo offers 24/7, while there are also some who have restrictions. So, make sure you will know very important matters for your own benefits.

Since there are reports of network hacking, you should consider asking this question how far the network security is also designed to block hackers. What extent of monitoring services, intrusion-detection systems, sort of firewalls and other security measures they can offer.

You see, there are a lot of factors you should consider first before you think of getting the services of collocation centers. Don’t be too trusting of the various benefits they shout to lure companies. The most important is to see and check for yourself, how a collocation center can be of genuine help to your company. Remember that if you get the services of a colo center, you will be incurring a lot of money, whether to pay for the rent of the equipment, salaries of the staff you will hire to handle the maintenance, or to pay the colo staff to do it for you.

Author is an AT&T master solution provider who specializes in helping customers make the most out of their communication and network needs. He works tirelessly to provide powerful, efficient and cost effective solutions, such as Collocation and cheap business phone service, to address clients’ communications needs.