Some of you may be using rented space in a hosted data center. This means you are paying for every unit on that rack. The less you use for the security hardware, the better off you are.

Some service providers keep the hardware at their own facilities. Others require you to make room for it at your site, to which you then must allow your provider access. Find out what your options are, as there are several advantages to having the service provider host the hardware in their space:

-- The less space used up on your racks the better, since as mentioned the required space will subtract from that available for other hardware needs.

-- The fewer people that have access to your server room or hosting cage, the better. If the service provider hosts the hardware in its space, you can reduce the number of people accessing your cage when there's an issue.

Hardware failure considerations