What is the best place to locate Data Centers?

There are 6 factors to consider when selecting a data center site. The most vital function of any datacenter is to keep its computing systemsoperationalso it's important to determine whether asite is likely to be impacted by a natural disaster; research whether earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, ice, storms or other severe events have occurredthere before. Understanding what hazards a site is prone to allows you to eithermitigate them in your design hardening the building against high winds forexample or to avoid the area. When considering what disasters canthreaten a site also pay attention to nearbyman-made hazards like a road construction orpassing trains that produce vibrations, factories emit contaminants…

Infrastructure redundancy is the key to data center availability, if you're able to extend that redundancy beyond theelectrical mechanical and cablinginfrastructure within your site, so yourdata center is supported by power from dual electrical substations andconnectivity from multiple serviceproviders, is much the better. If there is more than one server environment involve them, they should be far enough apart so they are not all impacted by a single negative event for instance. If you want to share data among facilities and have them provide failover capability for one anotheryou are going to want them within a certain distance of one another.

Energy consumption represents the single greatest operational cost for datacenters. Less expensive electrical ratescan save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for a major datacenter. Using outside air to cool your datacenter lets you avoid running thecondensers in your mechanical systemsaving energy and money, that is why a research of typical weather conditions for a site is recommended; a cooler climate will allow you to useoutside air for more time which meansmore savings.

It is a important to familiarize with the local codes that apply to a site so the project isn't unexpectedly delayedwhen it is discovered that a employed technology clashes with a local code. For example in some countries including several stateswithin the United States it's illegal toharvest rainwater, if there is intendedto collect rainwater for the landscaping that poses a problem.

A colocation facility is an apartment complex for servers. If you are going to spin up a startup company and for whatever reason you need to use your own hardware, or if you're responsible for IT in a companyand you need to be able to run your hardware but you don't haveinfrastructure within your building orfacilities to be able to maintain aserver room, you may want to go into a colocation facility. Colocation facility is essentially a fully professional data centerfor rent; with professional HVAC (Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association), multiple connections for electricity (in case one connection goes down they’ll have a backup generator), multiple connections to the internet… It provides you multiple ways of making sure that the data center stays up even in disaster scenarios.