Is Sacramento Colocation Less Expensive Than Bay Area Colocation?

If you are on the lookout for a colocation solution in the Bay Area, Sacramento offers the best options. Sacramento colocation is not only less expensive; it also comes with more services than its Bay Area counterparts.

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

The chance of experiencing an earthquake in the Bay Area over the next three decades is a certainty while the chances of it happening in Sacramento are miniscule. But when choosing a company for colocation, it is also good to make sure 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 an important factor when choosing a data center, Sacramento will be the 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:

• Raging Wire Telecommunications
• Herakles Data [Now part of QTS (Quality Technology Services)]
• 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, then it makes sense to choose a data center in Sacramento.
• 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.

If the answers to these questions are sufficient, it will make the decision process easy. Although price is important, it is not always the main factor that influences decisions concerning colocation.

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.

And if you’re responsible for growing colocation revenue in Sacramento or the Bay Area, be sure to download “Lead Generation Best Practices for Colocation Data Centers.”