Data centers have become very important in the last couple years for several reasons. First of all, most companies have aging data centers that should be upgraded if not totally replaced to handle new equipment that requires more power and heat dissipation.

Second, with new compliance issues required by Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, data centers and the information they store must comply with new regulations and requirements. Third, organizations that have pushed back IT budgets are in a position to either make some big capital expenditures or seek out third-party firms like PEAK 10 to address this issue.

I arranged a meeting at PEAK 10’s Tampa office to interview Deborah Curtis – a PEAK 10 vice president – before I left for Orlando. The meeting was scheduled at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. I was looking forward to the discussion and seeing the data center.

On late Monday before the meeting, I received a call from their PR Firm (Clear Image) that the interview was canceled. I spoke to their account manager (David Menzies) and he said they were all busy and could not grant a face-to-face interview. I thought that was odd as most companies want to show off their data centers and brag about their services.

I told him I had already spoken to one of PEAK 10’s vice presidents and she arranged the interview for Tuesday.

At best, he said he might be able to get me a phone interview later. He added: “They do not want anyone walking through the data centers because of client confidentiality.” That’s a red flag. They openly list clients on their Web site. While I started becoming skeptical, I remained patient.

Have you ever walked through a data center and saw client names listed on every data rack and on all cable trays? Some industry veterans had a good laugh when I told them that one. Data centers are very nondescript and customer names are not painted on the wall. Their PR person was blowing smoke. That’s a red flag.

Do Your Due Diligence Before Contracting

With the unexpected cancellation, I reset the phone interview for this week on Tuesday at 8 a.m. to give him a full week to get someone for me to interview. This was disappointing to have to do, though, because I was right there to conduct a face-to-face interview and see their facilities with my own eyes.

I didn’t receive a call by this Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. I called their PR person. He apologized and gave another excuse that everyone was busy. He asked me to e-mail him the questions and someone would answer them. Red flags went up again.

He should have called me if he couldn’t get someone for the agreed-upon time. Figuring I wasted enough time with him, I gave him to 9:30 a.m. to get someone I could talk to. Unsurprisingly, 9:30 a.m. came and went. I didn’t even get a return call. This is unprofessional and is not a good reflection on PEAK 10 since they trust this firm to help them “handle the media”.

It seemed very odd that no one was available after a week’s notice and their PR person was overly guarded in getting questions answered. This caused more red flags and smoke. He seemed nervous about a biased interview. I didn’t understand that. I even read him my questions so he didn’t think there were any pointed ones. The questions were general in nature:

1. What are customers looking for today in services, speeds, security and storage capabilities?
2. What are some of the new concerns of companies in general?
3. How important is being close to a fiber-optic infrastructure?
4. Has the emergence of Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA compliance changed your offerings?
5. Do you see any municipal support for your business?
6. What do you believe are the most important capabilities to your customers?

These aren’t tough questions. His excessive cautiousness set up numerous red flags not only to me but to other industry veterans last week who all said it was odd that they didn’t want anyone walking through their data centers. What about PR people asking for questions in writing before anyone would answer any of them? Get real.

I would not trust anything I read if this is how they filter interviews about PEAK 10.

What questions were “submitted” that have not been answered? If you are going to use a third-party data center for an alternate backup site for your mission-critical applications, you better have some tough questions to ask. Make sure you do some good due diligence before turning over your mission-critical applications.

Must Be a Fire When PR Blows Too Much Smoke

I went from being very positive about PEAK 10 from what I read online to being very skeptical based on how I was handled by their PR firm.

Did they just have some problems with their data centers? Are they selling things they don’t really have at each facility? Why are they using a PR firm to act as a buffer for a simple interview? Are they trying to quietly handle a crisis? All these questions started popping up in my mind as well as from those dealing with data centers as both suppliers and customers.

I was referred to their Web site for a compilation of their customers and services. I guess their PR firm thinks someone is just going to buy off on what is on a Web page. Their PR firm’s hesitation for a simple interview still baffles me. Any PR firm knows that it’s your job to get good press for your client.

Creating some mystical fog and smoke gets your client into a vortex of skepticism and doubt. I can’t count the number of organizations that want to walk you through their “showcase” data center whether it’s a Fortune 100 company, a university, a 911 center or even a small company that’s proud of what they put together. PEAK 10 is a different case.

Is PEAK 10 Really PEAK 2 ¾?

While I wish I had come up with a dazzling skeptical question, it has to be credited to another longtime industry authority and smoke-signal reader: Frank Bisbee. Bisbee questioned whether or not they really have everything they say they have or if they have all the services in one location with the other locations having just a portion of the capabilities.

Do they have full connectivity to every data center or do certain ones only have a tail circuit from a larger pipe? I can’t answer that either way because I didn’t see what they had in their facility. Based on their PR person being so guarded, though, more red flags unfurled than what they have at the Kremlin.

Here are some issues to look for when you walk through any facility. I learned these at BICSI:

1. Do they have cabinet-mounted fans on the server cabinets? Did you know this does no good in cooling or dissipating hot air?

2. Do they have a cool aisle and a hot aisle? Equipment should be arranged so you have all the heat in one aisle and the cool aisle in the next.

3. Are all wall and floor penetrations fire stopped? If they leave these areas open, chances are they have used shortcuts in other areas of the facilities.

Ask D. Bunk at Chatsworth for more data-center cooling tips.

There are some great myths that he blows away on data centers. What’s the bottom line on all data centers? If you can’t walk through the facilities and take a good look at what they are trying to sell you, walk away. When PR blows too much smoke, there must be a fire somewhere.

Carlinism: Executives who can’t directly handle questions about their business shouldn’t be executives.