Let’s get one thing out of the way up front—choosing the right location for your data center is absolutely crucial. It has a direct impact on quality of service, meaning that if you choose a facility that’s geographically distant from your organization or market, you’ll likely run into no shortage of issues. Moreover, if your business relies on the facility’s infrastructure for high-intensity or high-availability computing, your choice of hosting location can make or break you.
The reasoning here is actually quite simple. The further you are from your data center, the further data has to travel before reaching its destination. That distance directly correlates to latency, which impacts:
- Load times
- Site speed
- Application performance
- Download speed
A data center that’s too far away from your business can also adversely affect service reliability. Data that has to travel further has a higher likelihood of encountering problems along the way. With that said, it’s important to note that we’re assuming a few things here:
- The absence of secondary data centers
- No content delivery networks
- A lack of redundant hardware and infrastructure
To put it another way, many modern data centers are designed in such a way that location isn’t as much of a concern—if you absolutely cannot find a suitable alternative closer to home, it may be acceptable to choose a physically distant site in some cases.
Location is About More Than Performance
There’s more to choosing a data center than speed, as well. And we’re not talking about the basic decision points—price, reliability, scalability, and uptime. Nor are we referring to the quality of the facility itself.
These are all important considerations, mind you. But in some cases, you may also need to think about the social and regulatory climate. Data protection and taxation laws aside, there are also factors such as availability of skilled labor, status of local infrastructure, and utility/networking availability.
How to Choose the Right Data Center Location
So, with all of the above established, let’s wrap things up with a checklist to help you choose the right data center host.
- Situated close to your business or target market
- Favorable regulatory climate
- Favorable tax laws
- Access to skilled labor (if relevant)
- High-quality networking solutions
- Modern infrastructure
- A proven track record
- A favorable service-level agreement
- Suitable security standards
- Regulatory compliance (if relevant)
- Suitable hardware
So, does it matter where your data center is hosted? Yes, definitely. But not solely for the reasons you might expect.
Geographic distribution aside, choosing the right data center host is a matter of finding a location that’s as favorable as possible for your business in as many ways as possible. On that note, if you’re looking for hosting in Michigan, Ohio, or Texas, Liberty Center One has you covered. Reach out today to learn more about how we can help you transform your business.