Here’s a question I get on what seems like a weekly basis: “Jim, Why don’t you guys own your own Data Center?” Since we host hundreds of websites, this might seem like a logical next step, but the reason we rent space at a Data Center rather than owning our own facility is pretty much the same reason why we don’t build our own servers, switches, routers, firewalls, or load balancers, or, to extrapolate to a different industry, the reason Southwest Airlines doesn’t just build their own airplanes or airports. Our specialty is hosting websites, applications, and data, not operating a Data Center facility, so we want to utilize the best available Data Center to make sure we can provide the services that are essential to our clients.
It’s all about best of breed. We believe strongly that our main Data Center is one of the best not only in the Midwest, but on a true world class level. We are very good at managing environments for Enterprise Windows and Linux hosting, and we have put together a model of what we believe to be a state of art business class hosting solution. At the center of that solution is our Data Center facility that is operated by Latisys.
I am very proud of the Data Center that houses our infrastructure. I enjoy taking our clients and prospects on a tour of the Data Center, so they can see everything that it offers, including security cameras, man traps, 24/7/365 staffing, redundant power, and more than enough bandwidth coming in and going out. It takes millions of dollars to build a facility like the one that houses our clients’ data; if we wanted to save money, we could expand our corporate HQ, adding a room that houses the servers and calling it our own “Data Center,” but that would not be what is best for our clients. Instead, we are able to provide world class service for our clients and maintain equipment at multiple facilities in order to ensure redundancy for potential disaster recovery situations. As we expand, we will move into more world class data centers, and we will always have more options, since we do not have to maintain our own Data Center.
I always challenge our clients and prospects when they are looking at web hosts to find out as much about the Data Center that they can. It
is an important aspect of our hosting services and something we don’t take for granted. We make sure that the Data Center has its certifications and audits, and we are always making sure that this is the best place possible to house our hosting network. By having someone else worry about the physical structure, we can focus our energy on being a superior enterprise web host. Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.” I think of this quote often, and it holds true for what we try to do each and every day at Diagram.
If you would like more details about our Data Center facility or our hosting services, please contact us.
