Is there a quantifiable SLA (service-level agreement ) with a reasonable cancellation clause?
An effective relationship with a datacenter is rooted in the SLA. Make sure that the SLA quantifies uptime, bandwidth, response time and support requirements. The SLA should also spell out penalties that the datacenter will incur for failing to meet the requirements. If worse comes to worst, you should be able to cancel the contract without undue penalties. 2. How long will installation take? A competent datacenter can demonstrate, through customer references, its mastery of the installation process. In many cases, it won’t take more than five days. Remember that extended installation time costs your company money and efficiency. Installation time is also an indicator of how fast the datacenter responds to other service and maintenance issues. 3. What is the datacenter’s uptime ranking? Ask to see documentation of the datacenter’s uptime ranking from Uptime Institute Inc. Request logs and downtime reports to get an idea of long-term reliability. Also, inquire about the company’s fail-o
