What to Ask Your Colocation Provider Before You Sign

Colocation is a long-term infrastructure decision. Unlike cloud services that can be cancelled with 30 days' notice, colocation agreements typically run one to three years, involve physical hardware you've already purchased, and create operational dependencies that aren't easy to unwind.

The questions you ask before signing matter considerably. This is what experienced infrastructure buyers want to know. and what the answers reveal about a provider.

Facility and Certification

What is the Tier rating of the facility, and can you provide the Uptime Institute certification documentation?

Tier ratings from the Uptime Institute are the industry standard for datacenter reliability:

• Tier I: 99.671% availability, no redundancy
• Tier II: 99.741% availability, partial redundancy
• Tier III: 99.982% availability, N+1 redundancy, concurrent maintainability
• Tier IV: 99.995% availability, fault tolerant, 2N redundancy

Marketing materials frequently claim Tier III or Tier IV compliance without certification. Ask for the actual Uptime Institute certificate, which names the specific facility and the certification date. If the provider cannot produce this, treat the claim sceptically.

What is the facility's power PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)?

PUE measures how efficiently a facility uses power. total facility power divided by IT equipment power. A PUE of 1.0 is theoretical perfection. Modern efficient facilities run at 1.2-1.4. Anything above 1.6 indicates significant overhead. This matters for power cost calculations and sustainability commitments.

What is the physical security protocol?

At minimum, look for: perimeter security, man-trap entry, biometric access control, CCTV with recorded footage, 24/7 security staff, and a visitor access log. Ask specifically what happens when a third party needs to access your equipment. what authorization process applies, and are you notified?

Power and Cooling

What is the committed power allocation per rack, and what is the maximum available?

Standard rack allocations are 3-5kW. High-density compute. particularly GPU servers. can require 10-20kW per rack. Confirm the facility can support your power requirements before committing. Also ask about the overhead on the power circuit. some facilities oversell power capacity in the same way airlines oversell seats, which works until everyone wants power at once.

What is the power redundancy model?

Standard is 2N. two independent power feeds from separate utility substations, two independent UPS systems, and two independent PDUs in each rack. Confirm that your rack actually has two physical PDUs, not just that the facility has 2N power to the floor.

What is the cooling architecture, and what happens if a CRAC unit fails?

N+1 minimum for cooling. Ask specifically about the hot-aisle/cold-aisle configuration and whether your rack will be in a contained aisle environment. For high-density deployments, ask about rear-door heat exchangers or in-row cooling.

Connectivity

Is the facility carrier-neutral?

A carrier-neutral facility allows you to contract directly with any carrier that has a presence in the facility, and to take cross-connects between carriers, between your equipment and other tenants, and to cloud on-ramps. A carrier-exclusive facility limits your options and typically means higher connectivity pricing.

What cloud connectivity options are available in the facility?

Direct, private connectivity to AWS (Direct Connect), Azure (ExpressRoute), and Google Cloud (Cloud Interconnect) eliminates the public internet from the path between your colocated infrastructure and cloud services. This is important for hybrid deployments and for latency-sensitive workloads that use cloud services. Ask which cloud providers have on-ramps in the facility and what the cross-connect process looks like.

What are the connectivity pricing terms?

Cross-connect fees, port fees, and bandwidth costs should all be documented before signing. Some providers quote attractive rack pricing and recover margin on connectivity charges.

Operations and Support

What are the smart hands SLAs?

Smart hands. on-site technical assistance for physical tasks (drive replacement, cabling, reboots, hardware installation). should have documented response time SLAs, not just availability commitments. Ask for: normal business hours response time, after-hours response time, and emergency response time. Ask specifically whether smart hands is included in the rack fee or billed additionally per incident.

What is the process for shipping equipment to the facility?

Hardware deliveries need to be received, stored, and available for installation. Ask about the receiving process, storage charges for equipment held before installation, and how deliveries are documented.

What does the remote hands process look like?

For routine tasks. rebooting a server, reading console output, checking indicator lights. you need a process that doesn't require your team to travel to the facility. Ask for a specific walkthrough of how a remote hands request is submitted, who picks it up, and how completion is documented.

Contract Terms

What are the termination terms?

Standard colocation contracts are 12-36 months with significant early termination fees. Understand what you're committing to before you sign.

What happens to my equipment if I stop paying?

This is an uncomfortable question but an important one. A good provider has a clear documented process. notice period, cure period, equipment access rights. Vague answers here are a warning sign.

What SLAs apply to the facility, and what remedies are available if they're not met?

Uptime SLAs should be documented with specific credit mechanisms for downtime. Read the SLA carefully. many have carve-outs for force majeure, planned maintenance, and customer-caused issues that significantly limit the practical scope of the guarantee.

Bamboozle provides colocation in Dubai (DX1) and Fujairah (FJ1). Both facilities are Tier III+ certified, carrier-neutral, with direct cloud connectivity options and 24/7 smart hands. Get in touch if you're evaluating colocation options in the UAE.