What is a Data Center?

      

       In its simplest form, a data center is a physical installation used by organizations to host their applications and critical data. The design of a data center is based on a network of computing and storage resources that enable the provision of shared applications and data.

What Defines a Modern data Center?

       Modern data centers are very different from what they were not long ago. The infrastructure has shifted from traditional local physical servers to a virtualized infrastructure that supports applications and workloads in physical infrastructure pools and a multi-layered environment.

        At that time, the modern data center is where its data and applications are. It spans multiple public and private clouds to the edge of the network via mobile devices and embedded computing. In this ever-changing environment, the data center must reflect the intentions of users and applications.

What are data centers Important to business?

       In the corporate IT world, data centers are designed to support commercial applications & activities that include:

·                    Email and file sharing

·                    Productivity applications

·                    Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

·                    Big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning

·                    Communication and collaboration services.

What are the essential components of a data center?

       The data center design includes routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application distribution controllers. Because these components store and manage critical data and applications, data center security is critical to the design of data centers. Together, they provide

Network infrastructure: This connects servers (physical and virtual), data center services, storage, and external connectivity to end-user locations.

Storage infrastructure: Data is the fuel of the modern data center. Storage systems are used to store this valuable product.

IT resources: Applications are the drivers of a data center. These servers provide the processing, memory, local storage and network connectivity that drive applications.

How Do Data Centers Operate?

       Data center services are generally implemented to protect the performance and integrity of the central components of the data center.

Network security devices: These include firewall and intrusion protection to safeguard the data center.

Application delivery guarantee: To maintain application performance, these mechanisms provide resistance and application availability through automatic error switching and load balancing.

What is in a Data Center Facility?

        The data center components require a significant infrastructure to support the center's hardware and software. These include power subsystems, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), ventilation, cooling systems, fire extinguishing, backup generators and connections to external networks.

What are the Standards for Data Center Infrastructure?

         ANSI / TIA-942 is the most widely adopted standard for data center design and infrastructure. It includes standards for certification prepared for ANSI / TIA-942, which guarantees compliance with one of the four categories of data center levels classified for redundancy levels and fault tolerance.

Basic site infrastructure: A level 1 data center offers limited protection against physical events. It has unique capacity components and a unique and non-redundant distribution route.

Redundant capacity component site infrastructure: This data center offers enhanced protection against physical events. It has redundant capacity components and a unique and non-redundant distribution path.

Site infrastructure that can be maintained simultaneously: This data center protects against virtually every physical event by providing redundant capacity components and multiple independent distribution paths. Each component can be removed or replaced without interrupting services for end users.

Fault tolerant site infrastructure: This data center provides the highest levels of fault tolerance and redundancy. Redundant capacity components and multiple independent distribution paths allow for simultaneous maintenance and failure at any place in the installation without causing downtime.

Types of Data Centers

        Many types of data centers and service templates are available. Their classification depends on whether they belong to one or more organizations, how they fit (if any) into the topology of other data centers, the technologies used for processing and storage, or even their energy efficiency. There are four main types of data centers.

Enterprise Data Centers: These are built, owned and operated by companies and optimized for their end users. Most often, they are hosted on the campus of the company.

Managed Services Data Centers: These data centers are managed by a third party (or a managed service provider) on behalf of a company. The company rents the equipment and infrastructure instead of buying it.

Colocation Data Centers: In colocation data centers ("colo"), a company leases space in a third-party data center outside of its premises. The colocation data center hosts the infrastructure - construction, cooling, bandwidth, security, etc., while the company provides and manages the components, including servers, storage, and firewalls.

Cloud Data Centers: In this form of offsite data center, the data and applications are hosted by a cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), or IBM Cloud.

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