Data Center Evaluation Checklist 4u2u31

Executive Brief

Data Center Evaluation Checklist

IT Innovation. Business Value.

Key Elements of a Data Center Operations Review and Due Diligence Process The decision to host your business-critical applications in a managed service

provider data center can lower your costs and give your organization access to a

secure, scalable, and highly available infrastructure. It can also free up internal IT staff to work on strategic projects, rather than application and systems monitoring and management.

But all data centers do not

Secure-24 is a

When you decide to outsource

leading provider of

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managed IT

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business needs.

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While there is no official

providing highly

data centers are evaluated are

available

guidelines like those of the Uptime Institutes and ANSI/TIA standards, two of the

IT environments and

and operational components. Although these standards are a great reference point,

expert management

outpace standards.

and for your

have equal capabilities.

part or all of your IT landscape, diligence to ensure that data

industry best practice – and your

certification authority, how

often benchmarked against

commonly known entities that rank data centers according to their infrastructure

they are by no means an exhaustive guide, since technology advances sometimes

business. 26955 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, MI 48033 Phone: 800-332-0076 [email protected] www.secure-24.com

IT Innovation. Business Value.

Data Center Evaluation Checklist Physical Facilities

The first criteria for judging a data center is the location itself – the location

should be in a region with a low incidence of natural disasters, with no history of flooding, seismic activity, hurricanes, and such. Locations should also

be chosen to maximize security and access to services and utilities, while

minimizing risks like vibration, crime, industrial pollution, high traffic, and fire. Second is the structure of the building — the physical components of building construction and features like floor design need to be validated against

accepted data center construction standards. The building’s systems —

electrical, mechanical, fire suppression — also need to be assessed and

validated. Finally, the facility must have redundancy built into all systems.

1

Physical Facilities Evaluator Notes  Location  Building Structure  Electrical Systems  Mechanical Systems  Environmental Management Systems  Floor Space & Cabling  Physical Security & Monitoring Systems  Telephone Systems  Fire Suppression & Safety Systems  Skilled Workforce Availability

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IT Innovation. Business Value.

Data Center Evaluation Checklist C o ntinu e d

Operational Effectiveness

In addition to assessing the physical facilities of the data center,

the operations of the entity running the data center must be reviewed to

ensure a high level of operational effectiveness and stability. The entity should have a proven track record of financial viability as well as an established customer base.

Further, their business practices need to be run in accordance with processes and procedures that are documented, disseminated, and regularly updated to reflect organizational as well as infrastructure changes.

2

Operational Effectiveness Evaluator Notes  Business Stability  Organization & Mission  Training  Daily Operations & Shift Management  Asset Management  Library & Management  istration

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IT Innovation. Business Value.

Data Center Evaluation Checklist C o ntinu e d

Systems Management Effectiveness

Data center infrastructure components must be ed by system

management policies and procedures that were designed and implemented to ensure optimal performance. For effective operations, the services that

the data center such as the problem incident reporting system and

change management must be defined, documented and integrated into data center operations.

3

Systems Management Effectiveness Evaluator Notes  Service Levels & Uptimes  Downtime Scheduling & Processes  Computer & Configuration Resource Mgmt  Problem Management  System istration & Task Management  Systems Operation Security  Change Management  Non-Disaster Recovery & Backup/Recovery

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IT Innovation. Business Value.

Data Center Evaluation Checklist C o ntinu e d

Disaster Recovery Planning

Data centers must have a thorough, well documented and tested disaster

recovery plan to guarantee minimal downtime and to ensure that SLA times are met. Disaster Recovery Plans are designed to recover the applications, data, and physical network within established critical timeframes and

to minimize the impact of a disaster on the business. The data center’s

Disaster Recovery Plans should be assessed to ensure that they meet the

requirements defined in SLAs and other performance timeframe requirements.

4

Disaster Recovery Planning Evaluator Notes  Business Continuation Planning & Evaluation  Recovery Site Analysis  Disaster Recovery Plan  Operational Readiness

The preceding four checklists provided the high-level attributes that need to be assessed as part of data center due diligence. For more detail about the individual attributes, refer to the standards developed by the Disaster Recovery Institute or Secure-24 at 800-332-0076.

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IT Innovation. Business Value.

Secure-24 — Next Generation Data Centers To provide the most flexible platform for innovative IT service delivery, Secure-24 services are delivered from our next generation, award winning data centers.

Data centers built with leading technology and specifically designed to meet your enterprise requirements – intelligent, scalable, sustainable and secure.

Multiple data centers that act interchangeably. Secure-24 employs a multi data center strategy for enhanced business To learn more about how

outsourcing your applications and infrastructure to Secure-24 can

help your organization achieve its business goals, us at: Secure-24

26955 Northwestern Highway Southfield, MI 48033

continuity. Data centers that are interconnected with a high availability self-

healing SONET ring work interchangeably so one data center can act as backup recovery/ failover for another to create an integrated disaster recovery solution.

Agile platform to grow. From global enterprises to government and industry, a focal point of every

successful IT infrastructure lies in the data center. Secure-24 managed services data centers provide a foundation for true transformation and the agility to

respond quickly, reliably and effectively to today’s—and tomorrow’s—changing

www.secure-24.com

business requirements.

Local: 248.784.1021

Whether you’re looking for risk mitigation, disaster recovery solutions, or just to

Fax: 248.784.1024

solution to meet your needs. Call us today to discuss how we can help your

Toll-Free: 800.332.0076

Info: [email protected]

alleviate some of your IT hosting burdens, Secure-24 can provide a customized company, or schedule a tour of our data centers.

Sales: [email protected]

Secure-24 is committed to helping your organization succeed by bringing

the best innovations and technology to your IT needs. That’s why we have

developed strategic relationships with market-leading business and technology companies and emerging players. Working closely with our network of

alliance partners strengthens our ability to deliver genuine business value to the enterprise and help clients make the most of their IT investments.

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