Data Center And Its services
What Is a Data Center?
At its simplest, a data center is a physical facility that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. A data center’s design is based on a network of computing and storage resources that enable the delivery of shared applications and data. The key components of a data center design include routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application-delivery controllers.
Modern data centers are very different than they were just a short time ago. Infrastructure has shifted from traditional on-premises physical servers to virtual networks that support applications and workloads across pools of physical infrastructure and into a multicloud environment.
In this era, data exists and is connected across multiple data centers, the edge, and public and private clouds. The data center must be able to communicate across these multiple sites, both on-premises and in the cloud. Even the public cloud is a collection of data centers. When applications are hosted in the cloud, they are using data center resources from the cloud provider.
What Data Centers Provides?
Data centers centralise organizations’ IT operations and equipment to ensure a secure location for storing, sharing, and managing vast amounts of data. They provide businesses with flexibility in how they back up and store their data, as well as protecting it from natural and man-made disasters. Data centers receive, store, and send data to support critical business applications and power data-intense services such as:
- Artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning
- Data storage, backup, recovery, and management
- E-commerce activity and transactions
- File sharing and email
- Productivity tools , applications
- Email and file sharing
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and databases
- Virtual desktops, communications and Real-time collaboration services
- High performance computing, Internet facilities, Hosting facilities
What are the Core Components of a Data Center?
The components of a data center require a vast infrastructure to support its hardware and software. This includes power and cooling equipment, as well as connections to external networks and security appliances such as firewalls and intrusion protection.
Application performance is safeguarded by delivery assurance mechanisms that provide availability and resiliency through automatic failover and load balancing. As These components store and manage business-critical data and applications, data center security is critical in data center design.
To avoid losing critical computing resources, a Data Center facility must make special arrangements to house the equipment, server resource and network infrastructure. The following ensure the stability of a facility:
- Power Capacity
- Cooling Capacity
- Cabling
- Temperature & Humidity Controls
- Fire & Smoke Systems
- Physical Security (Restricted Access/Surveillance Systems)
- Rack Space & Raised Floors
Together, they provide….
Network infrastructure. This connects servers (physical and virtualized), 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 hold this valuable commodity.
Computing resources. Applications are the engines of a data center. These servers provide the processing, memory, local storage, and network connectivity that drive applications.
Data Center Benefits
A data center provides traditional business-oriented benefits like:
- around-the-clock operations
- lower cost of operation
- the maintenance needed to sustain the business functions
- the rapid deployment of applications
- consolidation of computing resources
Ultimately, a data center will help your business in the following areas:
- Business Continuity
- Increased Security
- Application, Server and Data Center Consolidation
- Application Integration
- Storage Consolidation
Distributed Network of Applications
This evolution has given rise to distributed computing. This is where data and applications are distributed among disparate systems, connected and integrated by network services and interoperability standards to function as a single environment. It has meant the term data center is now used to refer to the department that has responsibility for these systems irrespective of where they are located.
Organizations can choose to build and maintain their own hybrid cloud data centers, lease space within colocation facilities (colos), consume shared compute and storage services, or use public cloud-based services. The net effect is that applications today no longer reside in just one place. They operate in multiple public and private clouds, managed offerings, and traditional environments. In this multicloud era, the data center has become vast and complex, geared to drive the ultimate user experience.