New York City Data Center Alternatives for Colocation

Choosing a colocation provider is an important decision, and the location of that provider is equally important. When considering a location for your Primary or DR data center needs, most NYC based businesses automatically think that the data center has to be located in or around Manhattan. Although NYC has many fine hosting providers, there are a few things to consider. Cost…cost’s generally are higher for everything including Bandwidth, Cabinet Space and Power. Also, older infrastructure and a higher susceptibility to emergency situations need to be taken into account.

Upstate NY’s newest and most technically advanced Data Center is located in Rochester, NY. EarthLink operates a SAS 70 Type II Enterprise Class Data Center in the Rochester, NY suburb of Pittsford. For NYC based businesses, EarthLink’s data center is strategically located to act as a reliable primary facility or as secure disaster recovery space as well.

EarthLink is one of the most cost effective data center solutions provider’s in the region. We are one of the few data centers across the country offering true metered power allowing our customers to pay only for the power they use, not a high fixed rate. This can lead to a savings of thousands of dollars each year. Our customers also benefit from our competitive pricing on bandwidth, allowing for even more savings compared to data centers in and around Albany.

Our team understands that your data and IT infrastructure is critical to your business. This is why we know it comes down to more than just cost savings. Our team of expert engineers and customer service is second to none. Our new SAS70 Type II Certified Data Center provides New York City with a great option for colocation and disaster recovery.

And the Data Pipe gets bigger again!

Earlier this month we increased our Highly Available Network Bandwidth to over 1.3 Gbps, spread over 3 redundant backbone providers that are each connected by a 1Gb fiber uplink to the Internet backbone.  With this upgrade, we are one of the highest capacity datacenters in Western New York.

This upgrade is the 2nd in three planned network upgrades for 2010.  In Q3 of this year, in anticipation of continued growth, we will be adding another Tier 1 backbone connection in order to bring even more bandwidth  to our clients, while also reducing bandwidth costs to our colocation clients.

Datacenter Services and Upstate (Upstate NY Data Center)

When I first started in the Data Center Services Industry, I was with an International provider working out of headquarters in NYC.  Man, I thought that was the place to be…..New York City, the most important metropolitan city in the world with the latest and greatest that technology had to offer. Things were going great.  We had a beautiful data center and NYC was overflowing with companies that needed our services.   Customers were lining up at our door….we couldn’t build cabinets fast enough.  The Data Center industry was on cruise control and I was driving it in New York City.    Then came Sept. 11, 2001.  We were located about 10 blocks from the World Trade Center – not that far when you’re talking about city blocks in Manhattan.  The city stopped, nobody was allowed access to our building for weeks.  Yes, the generators kicked on when the power failed, our multiple access providers allowed us to maintain connectivity and our staff did a great job keeping our customers online.  As we all experienced, everything came to a screeching halt after the attacks.  Without downplaying the tragedies of that day, my focus for this message is that although the data center performed exactly as it was supposed to, our customers quickly changed the way they viewed where their data center is located and their disaster recovery plans.

Well, now it’s 2009 and I’m fortunate to continue my career within the Data Center services industry with EarthLink.  I followed the lead of a lot of my clients from NYC and moved away from the metro area and headed north to Upstate, NY.  Most of the customers I had in NYC either moved their primary  infrastructure out of the NYC data center and into one located in this region, or setup a DR site in a data center located in this area.  Either way, they quickly discovered that data center services provided in Upstate, NY are not only as good (if not better), but the price is right too.   One of the many things that Upstate has to offer is the climate.  Our climate lends itself very well for data center cooling and power management.  I’m sure you’ve heard that Yahoo has even recognized this and is building their newest data center in Buffalo.  EarthLink has built its newest data center in Pittsford, NY – a suburb of Rochester.  With our data center located in this area, we are able to accomplish many things.  One of those is the ability to reduce power costs by utilizing the latest technologies by taking advantage of the cooler climate.  Combined with the ability to provide metered power, we are able to manage power utilization more efficiently which enables us to pass tremendous cost savings on to our customers.  When you are considering data center services, start to consider the Upstate, NY region for the energy efficient processes, robust backbone options, and skilled engineering support.