Has Colocation become a commodity in today's market? That is to say that all colocation is equal and price is the only criteria. Is this really the case?
I think upon closer inspection you will see that all colocation is not created equal.

Table Rock Lake is expected to crest at 933 feet sometime on Saturday. The Corps is releasing record amounts of water from the dam, and this is causing Lake Taneycomo to rise to record levels as well. Numerous homes and businesses near both lakes are being evacuated in preparation for even higher levels.

Increasingly, Corporate America is stoing its business critical data in facilities such as The Mountain Complex. Your initial reaction might be that space in this world class subterranean complex is outrageously expensive. If that is the case, then you would be wrong. In fact, in some cases storing paper records and data at The Mountain can be cheaper than storing them unprotected in your own office.

Hero or Zero?

Don't wait until you need the data you have backed up to test your retrieval procedures. Your backup processes are not a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Grill - you can't just "set it and forget it". In the event of data loss, you can be a hero or a zero. Which one do you want to be?

Within an office, the normal ratio of stored files to floor space is 1:1 (cubic foot/square foot). In The Mountain Complex's record storage area the ratio varies from 8:1 to 16:1.

Office space rental and leasing in southwest Missouri varies greatly with location and amenities, but a conservative average places it at around $1.00 per square foot per month.

Just as having your backup tapes stored off-site is not sufficient planning for a disaster, simply having a plan of how to recover from the unpreventable is not enough. Consider the following research:

• A study by the University of Texas uncovered the following statistics: "Only 6% of companies suffering a catastrophic data loss survive, while 43% never reopen and 51% close within two years."
• $18,000 is the average hourly cost of downtime for PC networks
• The average cost of downtime ranges from approximately $90,000 per hour of in the transportation industry (airline reservations) to $6.5 million for large brokerage houses in the finance industry (as reported by Contingency Planning Research)

A Rock Solid infrastructure allows your business to continue operating during a crisis - not just recover from it. Sure you can back everything up to tape, but what if your building burns down or is washed away in a flood or storm surge? How detrimental to your business or organization would a week of downtime be?

Every business must have a Business Continuation Plan of which Disaster Recovery is but a subset.