You have decided to colocate in Ashburn, now what? You need to find a facility that will not only provide all your needed specifications but offer a true partnership. There are many options for providers so knowing what to look for will help narrow the immense field down to the perfect location. Here are a few tips for finding the best Ashburn colocation data center provider:

Facility: Not all facilities are created the same. Look for a space that is at least a Tier III+ with 99.95% availability. A facility that has a minimum of N+1 infrastructure redundancy with 24×7 on-site engineers is ideal. Consider a location that offers 100% uptime cooling systems that are fault tolerant and concurrently maintainable. Another feature that some of the state-of-the-art facilities offer is biometric security where fingerprints or retina scans validate all individuals entering.

Partnership: Cost is always a top priority with choosing a colocation provider, but often the cheapest is not always the best. Find a provider that can be a true partner by being able to get you into the facility of your choice, at a great cost, and with increased flexibility should you require it. Ultimately, you’re looking for a goldilocks partner, one that is just right.

Flexibility: It’s important to understand what amount of flexibility you have (and require) in setting up your environment, growing in the future, and even in your contract terms and options. It’s easy for a company to say that they’re flexible, but will you truly be able to expand if you need to? What about power and bandwidth increases? How are those handled? Ensure you know how you truly will be able to scale and the limits of your provider’s flexibility before signing.

By focusing on the facility, forming a partnership and ensuring you are in an environment flexible enough to meet your current and future needs you will be well on your way to finding the right colocation provider in Ashburn for your business.