Build vs Co-Locate

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http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=colocate+computer+studies+costs&hc=0&hs=0

There's hundreds of articles. My experience tells me that each situation is unique. Setting up the servers and replication back to HQ was not an easy task. Maintaining computer communications btwn sites, and travel btwn sites, was a constant.

Are you going to be retaining IT staff after you co-locate? What services are provided (contracted) with your co-location facility? What is the history of the co-location facility (in terms of other clients' experiences; find out what the turnover rate is, etc.); do they offer references? Are their prices stable? Are their staff stable? Are their facilities clean, cool, and properly maintained? Is telecommunications or data communications going through different telephone/data service providers?

I can't point you to any studies, but I can throw my .02 in here for you. Co-locating will be much cheaper than building a data center. If your actually building a data center, you have to look at all the costs involved: 1) the building itslelf, it needs to be safe from natural disasters, 2) you need reliable sources of electricity, normally having 2 or more seperate power-feeds, UPS backups, and a lot of time diesel generators incase all other forms fail, 3) the internet connection, must be multihomed, and very redundant & fast, 4) all of your servers, 5) climate control & haylon fire systems and finally 6) your staff, someone will have to be in the building or oncall 24/7/365. As you can see, theres a lot involved in running a data center. Co-locating is the best choice unless you've got some serious $$$ to spend. If you really want to build a data center, as I hope to do someday, I'd start out by co-locating for now, until revenue builds and the clients add up enough to build your own. I hope this helps you out making a decision.

There is a white paper from Intel Corp. The name is; Planning and Bulding a Data Center, Meeting the e-business Challenge.

http://www.intel.com/network/white_papers/data_center/

This 15 page report goes over the challenge, assumptions and limitations of the Data Center and a co-location services.

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