Example RFI for colo provider selection

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

I'm researching a list of some colocation providers I have here to find the most suitable one to provide services for a project I'm working on. My thought is to send out an informal RFI, which I believe is something others may have done too. If anyone is able to share, I'd be interested in having a peek at some of these colo-centric RFIs to understand what questions others have asked in the past, as it may help me come up with some questions that I may not have thought of myself.

If an RFI isn't an appropriate means to gather information on such a prospect, I'd certainly like to hear that too.

Thanks in advance.

PS. To any reader who may be thinking this is an open invitation for a sales email, it's not :slight_smile:

2

Pretty much every first contact I see is along the lines of "I have the
following requirements X, Y, and Z. Please provide a quote to suit
these." The format of these may vary wildly.

As far as questions to ask, IPv6 is always on the top of my list but
almost always makes the viable prospects list pretty slim. Power *type*
availability is often overlooked (i.e. 208 volts or three-phase) until
the fateful day you need more than single phase 120 to run something and
the colo says oops not available.

~Seth

3

I'm researching a list of some colocation providers I have here to find the most suitable one to provide services for a project I'm working on. My thought is to send out an informal RFI, which I believe is something others may have done too. If anyone is able to share, I'd be interested in having a peek at some of these colo-centric RFIs to understand what questions others have asked in the past, as it may help me come up with some questions that I may not have thought of myself.

* Most overlooked: Does the backup power system cope with the cooling power requirements?

* Several fiber providers connecting the facility, or one heavily multi-pathed.

* If you intend to buy transit, number of (and perhaps prefered) transit providers.

* If you intend to make your own IP-infrastructure, which transmission providers are present?

* Space to grow, price. (ie. where do I leave the underpriced
  introductory offer and go into more expensive list-price setups)

* Power, as previously mentioned. Three-phase is IMNSHO a must. But,
  then, I'm from Yoorp.

  In power, several subtopics:

  - Dual circuits, independently UPS-backed.

  - Generator backup.

  - Frequency of full-scale and load tests of power backup systems.
  Anything less than load test several times per year and at least one
  full-scale axe-in-mains-feeder -type test per year means that the
  "Diesel promise" is a lie.

  - They should have monitoring and trend watching systems set up to
  stop accepting new customers once any UPS is at 50% of rated load
  (What happens when one UPS side commits seppuku and fails to bypass?)

  - Power protection systems, for overvoltage, spikes, thunderstorms, etc.

More could be added and has been. My 0,05 €, this.