A Guide to Data Centres

A Quick Guide to Data Centres.

Modern businesses need to harness the power of applications and the internet, and this needs to be achieved to a high standard for these businesses to remain competitive. Central to all of this is data. This means that your data, as well as your IT infrastructure, needs to be organised. One of the simplest solutions is to integrate a data centre.

What is a Data Centre?

A data centre typically houses a large number of computer servers, networking equipment, and storage systems, and provides services such as data backup and recovery, security, and connectivity. Data centres store and manage applications and processes large amounts of data. They provide secure, reliable infrastructure for organisations to store and access digital information. Data centres manage information for cloud computing and online services.  Highly reliant on technology, a data centre will typically contain these components:

• Servers: central hubs that facilitate communication and data transfer between different devices and users connected to the network.

 

• Storage drives: these are used to store digital backups of your data and ensure that they can be retrieved easily and quickly when required.

 

• Routers: traffic on your network needs to be directed and connected to different servers, and this is where routers step in.

 

• Switches: helping to connect devices on a network, switches play an integral role in connectivity and also help to communicate data packets between devices.

Designing a Data Centre

Data is a highly valuable commodity in the modern age, so it needs to be handled carefully. Therefore, you need to ensure that your data centre is correctly designed. A well-built data centre will not only allow you to optimise your productivity, but it will also protect you against digital disasters such as component failure and the resulting data loss. In terms of data centre design, you need to consider the following:

• Real estate: the most important, and defining factor, of a data centre will always be the space available for it. This real estate need should be carefully considered as it’s crucial that optimal space is required to house all the necessary IT components.

 

• Security: not only do data centres house the heartbeat of your businesses IT operations, but they also contain highly expensive equipment. Accordingly, it’s vital that high security protocols are implemented into their design e.g. keypad entry, limited staff access and the presence of security cameras.

 

• Power: a good data centre will require significant amounts of power to cope with the intensive demand of the equipment. This means that a thorough survey will need to be conducted to assess your needs and also consider future scalability.

 

• Cooling: data centres generate a lot of heat due to the sheer number of electrical devices operating 24/7, so this factor needs to be addressed. After all, electrical devices begin to struggle once temperatures start rising. As such, installing air conditioning solutions should be a priority when designing a data centre.

Data Centre Operators

As you can see, data centres are highly technical and complex facilities. Constant monitoring, therefore, is essential. And this is where data centre operators come in. Responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of a data centre, these operators will monitor the infrastructure and arrange annual maintenance as well as reactive repairs.

Data Centres Towards the Future

Data centres represent an effective way to manage your data. But what will happen in the future? Technology, after all, advances rapidly and brings all manner of changes. Security measures, for example, will need to be regularly reviewed and upgraded. Scalability, too, is an important element to consider due to the increasing demand for more data in business. With this in mind, regularly reviewing the capabilities of a data centre should be a priority.

 

Read more about Data Centres

• Structured Cabling for Data Centres

• Data Centre Knowledge Centre