Why Columbus, Indiana is a great data center location
July 26, 2012 by Kara Manon · Leave a Comment
Location, location, location: The golden rule of real estate. At Data Cave, we have the best location, but don’t take our word for it.
- Area Development ranked Columbus, Indiana the #1 US City in its 2012 Leading Locations Report, compiled using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the US Census American Community Survey. On top of that, it ranked as the #1 Small City and #1 Midwest City.
- Fortune ranked Columbus as one of the top 100 places to live and launch a business.
- Christian Science MonitorRanks Columbus as the top city for job growth at 6.4%.
- Forbes ranked it as one of the top 10 prettiest cities in America along with Key West, Old San Juan, and Gatlinburg. (60 notable buildings and 6 are historic landmarks)
- American Institute of Architects rank Columbus 6th city in the nation for architectural innovation and design.
On top of these rankings, Columbus has the fourth highest GDP growth of any US city. And despite its small population, its GDP is higher than 37 countries globally. Not only is Columbus, Indiana a great place to own a business and live, it also features many characteristics that make it a great place to store and protect data.
1. Weather Conditions
Weather in the Midwest can be unpredictable. No matter if what the fear – tornados, hail, snow, or flooding – weather is a real concern for any business in the area. Comparatively though, Columbus has lower weather risks than Indianapolis, Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky. Plus we purpose built our facility to combat Mother Nature’s threats.
2. Geographic Location
Disaster recovery best practices mandate using a data center at least 50 miles away. Columbus is just far enough from your location to provide the necessary geographic redundancy to protect against disaster but not too far to keep you from visiting your equipment. Plus, our top notch support keeps our customers from needing to visit often. We rarely see our customers, with the exceptions of installation and maintenance.
3. Economic Environment
As the statistics above state, Columbus is a booming economic town. Cummins, a Fortune 200 company, Faurecia, Dorel Juvenile Group, NTN, Toyota Materials Handling USA, Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, Enkei, LHP software, Analytical Engineering, CAPCO, KAMIC, and many other large corporations call Columbus, Indiana home. Since 2010, the city has experienced at least one corporate expansion per month, which has yielded 1,840 new jobs. The city ranked third in economic strength, fourth in prime workforce, and fifth in recession busting. Boasting stable taxes, the City of Columbus provides a growing economic environment that provides peace of mind for customers of Data Cave.
4. Security
Compared with Indianapolis, Louisville, and Cincinnati, Data Cave has the lowest crime rate. When this is coupled with Data Cave’s state of the art security features, you can be sure your data is safe. The graph below compares the crime rates of the various cities. As with the weather, they are scored with 100 as the national average. Columbus is the only city that sits well below the national average.
5. Data Cave Talent and Ownership
Columbus is surrounded by many acres of land, and Data Cave owns 21 acres as well as the facility itself. Data Cave boasts some of the best talent in the Data Center world (Click here to read more about our incredible staff). We are devoted to our clients and go out of our way to meet their needs. As we continue to grow, our location in Columbus, Indiana, gives us access to some of the brightest and most talented in the technology field. Columbus is an IT hub and attracts some of the best in technology. Plus, the city has the highest concentration of mechanical engineers in the country and is well above the national average for all kinds types of engineers. Our staff coupled with our services makes your data center experience easy. We can reboot equipment, do tape changes, and many other tasks that don’t require your presence.
We carefully chose Columbus, Indiana to be the home for our business, and we welcome you to share in its advantages, especially when it comes to protecting your valuable data assets. Contact us or call 866-514-2283 to schedule a tour and see for yourself.
The Cost of Being Unprepared
June 12, 2012 by Kara Manon · Leave a Comment
Halloween 2011, New England. Mother Nature provided more tricks than treats when she dumped a massive amount of snow and ice. 1.8 billion homes and businesses were without power for over a week. A Symantec Disaster Preparedness Survey estimated that downtime costs $12,500 a day for small to medium sized businesses. Potentially, businesses in New England could have lost at least $87,000, if they weren’t prepared.
Data is quickly becoming one of the most valuable assets a company has, but many companies don’t take the time, effort and money to be prepared and to protect their data. If you are a business owner or rely on data for smooth operation of your business, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have an emergency or disaster preparedness plan? 66% of businesses don’t. (Ad Council)
- Do you think it’s important to recover data after a disaster? 71% think it is important.
- Do you have any remote data backup? Even though 71% think it’s important, only 31% take action to back up their data.
Too many businesses are falling victim to myopic vision and the ever popular “That could never happen to me.” Company executives are focused on revenue, but forget about their backup plans. This limited thinking can (and will) cost them a lot of time and money.
Luckily, hindsight is 20/20. Past disasters, like last Halloween, have painted prime examples of other companies.
- Honda (and other Japanese car manufacturers) halted their supply chains and manufacturing processes for months after the tsunami in 2011.
- American Express suffered great data and equipment losses in the September 11th attack of the World Trade Centers.
In fact, in 2011 the U.S. broke its record for the cost of natural disasters at a staggering 1 billion dollars.
The risks are real, and your data and equipment is important. So what can you do to prevent loss and continue operating in the case of a disaster?
- Use off-site backup
- Use disaster recovery
- Have business continuity services available
It is crucial to move your data somewhere else. Diversify your data’s location to minimize your risk. By doing this, you will create your own insurance policy and ensure that your valuable data is protected.
At Data Cave, we’ve made it our business to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. We strategically chose an Indiana location with a low risk of natural disasters. Plus, we purpose built our data center to protect against the most common Midwest disasters – storms.We don’t only offer your data a safe home but we also have the option to provide you with an office, should yours become inoperable.
Nowadays, your information, data, and technology are incredibly valuable. Using Data Cave to protect these is your best insurance policy.