Is Sacramento Colocation Less Expensive Than Bay Area Colocation?

Sacramento offers the best options if you are looking for a colocation solution in the Bay Area.

Sacramento colocation is cheaper and provides more services than its Bay Area counterparts.

Although both cities are just 90 miles apart, Sacramento's colocation is the best solution as the city is more seismically secure. When you look at IT assets, protecting physical infrastructure is important, and Sacramento provides that.

The chance of experiencing an earthquake in the Bay Area over the next three decades is certain, while the chances of it happening in Sacramento are minuscule. But when choosing a company for colocation, it is also good to ensure that the data center doesn’t lie in a potential floodplain.

Sacramento is Cheaper

The cost of doing business in Sacramento is less expensive and keeps you close to major hubs like Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

As stability is important when choosing a data center, Sacramento will be a natural choice. As facilities in the area are more seismically secure, lower insurance costs will also trickle down to the customer. The same can’t be said for the Bay Area, which lies near fault lines.

As colocation is popular among small to midsize businesses trying to fill the gap in technology, Sacramento data centers are increasingly attractive. Aside from being cheaper, colocation will also continue to add more security and scale up online services when traffic is high.

Colocation Data Centers in Sacramento

Sacramento has about two to three large colocation data centers. The main players in the city are:

• NTT Data (Raging Wire Telecommunications)
• QTS (Quality Technology Services) (Herakles Data)
• LANSET Communications

Both Herakles Data and Raging Wire Telecommunications are located in the Natomas area. LANSET Communications is located in Rancho Cordova.

What Should You Look For?

If you choose to move forward with Sacramento colocation, here are some questions to consider:

• Who is using it? Whenever you start the process of choosing a data center, always ask for references.
• Is latency important? Where are most of your users located? If they are located on the West Coast, choosing a data center in Sacramento makes sense.
• Do you understand pricing? The cost of server ownership is about five to seven times the actual cost of the server. So it is important that you understand the various aspects of pricing.
• Is it reliable? Always ask for the qualifications of the support staff and the spare capacity of the data center. You can also add questions about spare power, the number of ISPs they serve, and their traffic. Further, you can also question them about redundant UPS.

The decision process will be easy if the answers to these questions are sufficient. Although price is important, it is not always the main factor influencing decisions concerning colocation.

Also see:

• Are Bay Area Colocation Providers Attracting Enough Capital?
• Which San Francisco Colocation Providers Have the Best Connectivity?
• Which San Francisco Data Centers Attract the Most Capital?

Are you looking for a data center in the Bay Area or Sacramento? What drives your decisions? Tell us about it in the Comments section below.