Are there any "hot spots" for colocation services in the western region?

I would say Las Vegas, or Sacramento, CA. There are a several co-location facilities in each of those markets, and both of them are fairly disaster free.

I would recommend AGAINST Colorado, as it is a nightmare to get to in the winter time. Denver Intl airport closes for several days a year due to weather - that does not make for an easy run to the colo if something needs attention.

Shyla,

Denver and Seattle are both good choices, but I would look at Portland as well. We have a number of regional and national players here in the Portland Metro without some of the severe weather. Another additional bonus is that most of your Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers can provide very cheap power in comparison to the rest of the country because we can take advantage of the BPA pricing.

I hope this helps!

Matthew

Have you thought about Western Canada? Specifically DataHive.ca has a 5000 sq ft colo facility in Calgary, Alberta. We cater to clients from 1U to racks, cages and private rooms. Let me know if you would like pricing and what solutions you require quoted.... terri-lynn@datahive.ca or 1-403-313-1106.

We are an ISV that provides two SaaS platforms in 1) professional services automation and 2) business financial planning dashboard.Our customers are IT service firms in 4 different countries - we host our servers in Seattle.

There are three things I would add to the above comments;

1. Make sure you understand the business reason for hosting; are these to run an application for customers to use? Is the hosting to house a server farm for internal company use? There are lots of reasons, but knowing why they need to host and who it will benefit will help your client make better decisions about the provider chosen.

2. Find out who else is hosting with the Colos you are investigating, do they have a track record of hosting companies similar to your client to addresss unique needs. There is nothing like having a vendor understand the flow of your business.

3. Investigate cloud-based services if you actually don't need to take people to your hosting facilities and it fits the reason why you need hosting in the first place. This could be a $$ saver over time (but work up front configuring). Not sure if your client's model fits this.

I would ask how you define “hot spot”. Here’s some questions in no particular order.
Do you need local 24 x 7 hands and feet support?
Do you need to cross connect to other companies in the data center to exchange traffic?
Do you need a specific power type?
Are there physical security requirements?
Are the WAN / Internet providers that you would like to use available in the data center?
What level of uptime (http://www.uptimeinstitute.org/) do you need?
Will the CoLo provide a SLA that matches their claimed uptime and provides for monetary credit if it isn’t met?
Do you need a SAS 70 certification?
Look into natural restrictions for the various zones in the US. (flood, earthquake, etc.)
Look into talent availability in the locations you are considering.
What’s the site’s accessibility (snowstorm, ice storm, etc.)?
Is the site near an airport with direct flights?
Is the site politically safe (terrorism)?
What’s the cost of power and where is it headed?
What happens at the end of your contract? Will another company be given first right of refusal on your space?
Is there room to grow?
What is the pricing structure long term?
Does it matter how flashy the site is? Do you need to bring a client to it?
Are you looking for more than power, space, cooling and security? This list could grow significantly if you are.

With out knowing what your requirements are I would recommend Phoenix. There are plenty of providers to choose from and positive answers to the questions that are above.
When my company went through a selection process a few years back, we pondered much of what is above. In the end it boils down to what is driving the business to co-locate. Feel free to bounce questions off of me.
James@Paventi.com - http://tinyurl.com/nhbmj9

Shyla,

I am an IT Project Manger and am not associated with any firms at the moment. Have you considered the Kansas City area? Kansas City is home to some of the most underground data center facilities in the world. There are many companies that offer both dedicated and co-located facilities. In addition, most of these companies have redundant facilities across the U.S. and provide Managed Services as an added benefit. If you need some additional information, feel free to reach out to me.
uwood@everestkc.net

You might also consider Phoenix, AZ and surrounds. Quite a few large enterprises use this area due in a large part to the lack of natural disasters.