It odd that Microsoft, Google, and Facebook would consider setting up their data centers in the “tornado alley.” However, it is unlikely that a natural disaster would cross paths with these data centers, but the physical location can impact the uptime. This is why you need to consider the physical location of your during your risk assessment.

Cloud server hosting often comes with high availability or redundancy as their built-in capabilities. However, one should only rely on the high availability if their primary solution fails, and never assume that your provider isn’t prone to outages. The best way to ensure not falling onto redundant systems is to have a robust primary solution.

Make sure to find out the physical location of your cloud desktop server and ensure that it meets your applications’ safety criteria. Is it in a disaster-proof area? Have there been recent power outages? Is it likely to have an earthquake that can wipe out the connectivity to the center?

If you consider going with a cloud solution outside your country, study its political and social stability. For the past few months, we have been noticing political uprising causing loss of connectivity to the public internet and the rest of the world.

While public protests can bring disruption, they are hard to predict and are a potential threat to businesses. Contingency plans must be in place if things go wrong. If your cloud server is located at a place not known for political stability, you should reconsider.

Take the micro-leveled geographic place into account as well. There are pros and cons to having a data center located in rural and urban areas. If you are going with the urban area, the perks would include more choices, low latency, and internet and electricity redundancy.

On the other side, the cons of the urban area include high crime rates, including theft and vandalism in the data centers located in sketchy areas.

Before choosing the cloud provider, keep in mind that the location of the data center can impact your business significantly. The cost might have everything to do with the location of the data centers.

The best way to ensure that the cloud desktop servers aren’t at risk is by finding a cloud service in an area comfortable to you. This would allow you to remain updated about the social, natural, or geographical issues.

With that being said, there is no perfect place to build a data center. However, some places pose lower risks than others.