More and more enterprises are turning to on-demand solutions, often for business-critical functions such as financials, supply chain management and e-commerce. Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming a mainstream choice, with 76% of U.S. businesses forecast to use at least one SaaS business application by the end of the year, according to market research firm IDC.

Adopting a SaaS business application means entrusting the operation of core systems to a third party, and therefore the strength and capacity of the SaaS provider's data center infrastructure is a key component of any evaluation. If the data center, the server infrastructure or the application itself becomes unavailable, the organization’s operations may be impaired or stopped completely.

Proper governance dictates that the IT organization must fully evaluate the provider’s data center capabilities up to requirements in key areas such as security, uptime and performance. A reliable infrastructure is vital in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is critical, with every possible step taken to eliminate potential breaches. In all respects, a data center must maintain the highest standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of the services it provides.

This paper sets out a framework for evaluating a data center. It considers the special factors that apply to an on-demand infrastructure, many of which go well beyond the standards applicable to the average enterprise data center.