Colocation and data center pricing models vary: caveat emptor

Colocation and data center pricing models vary: caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Whether you’re shopping for a cloud computing data center provider or wholesale colocation facilities, if you get three quotes, you’re likely to get three radically different pricing models. Not only is it difficult to compare the quotes apples-to-apples, it may also be difficult to forecast because of the hidden costs of growth and change.

Let’s look at the monthly cost components for a 99.995% uptime data center:

• Capital costs for two of everything: generators, power conditioning, and air conditioning systems
• Capital costs for the hardened data center building with dual telecom and power entrances
• Operating costs for the power systems, including labor and costs to operate and maintain generators and power conditioning
• Operating costs for the data center building facility including maintenance and staffing
• Operating costs to power the IT equipment
• Operating costs to power the air conditioning to cool the IT equipment

Watch for high costs of power on additional power per cabinet. Make sure you understand any power maximums per cabinet. Ask about add-on fees. Carrier neutral data centers with no monthly cross-connect fees offer the most choices for telecommunications.

Lifeline Data Centers offers affordable colocation with a simple data center pricing model that makes it easy to start small, forecast growth, and pay incrementally. Lifeline’s pricing model has three monthly cost components:

• Floor space
• Number of active cabinets
• kW of power utilization

With Lifeline’s data center pricing model, It is easy to determine monthly costs and to forecast growth over time. Are you looking for data center experts that offer lots of telecom choices, no monthly cross connect fees, and a simple pricing model? Call Lifeline Data Centers at 317.423.2591.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.