Thinking about renting space in a co-location facility?

I suggest you visit any site you’re considering with the usual due-diligence checklist that addresses matters of security, compliance, environmental risks, power redundancy, and networking capabilities.

This checklist will get you only so far, however. You’ll need to keep a couple of other co-location considerations front-of-mind, too.

First, who owns the co-lo site you’re considering? If it’s a real estate investment trust (REIT), this may impact how the co-lo site operates.

After all, REIT profits come from real estate — in this case, renting rack space — rather than providing technology services. At minimum, you’ll need to know the parties represented in your contract. A co-lo outfit operating on the REIT’s property? The REIT itself? What happens if, say, the REIT’s facility rather than the co-lo provider is responsible for a costly power outage?

By contrast, co-lo data centers owned and operated by experienced technology services providers act as much more than landlords, since they’re committed to fielding cutting-edge data center environments supported by a deep technical and business expertise that enables them to take full responsibility for what they provide.

So here’s the second co-lo consideration to keep front-of-mind: even if you don’t currently anticipate needing anything more than rented rack space, you may someday be glad for a tech-savvy co-lo provider able to also offer round-the-clock monitoring, remote hands, and the ability to deliver cloud integration or managed services whenever you need them.