What is a Data Center? Everything You Need to Know

This guide was updated on July 22, 2020.

The definition of a data center has evolved significantly over the past few decades. Today, data centers are both physical and virtual infrastructures that centralize an organization's business-critical applications, information, equipment and IT operations. The role of a data center is to store, manage and disseminate data for an organization as part of its daily operations. In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about data centers.

Any business or government entity that generates or uses data will need a data center on some level in order to meet the needs of the organization and its members and customers. And those data needs will only grow in the future. It is anticipated that humans will generate 40 ZB of data per year by 2020. All these data points require storage solutions.

Here’s a quick overview of the most important features of modern data centers:

An effective data center includes multiple components: facility, infrastructure, equipment and operations staff.

• Facility. Your data center facility is the physical space that houses your equipment and infrastructure. From efficient use of space to ensuring optimal security, keep equipment cool, and reducing energy consumption, there are many elements to consider to keep your data center functioning at peak performance.
• Equipment. While the term "data center" is singular, a data center is composed of a number of elements and pieces of equipment, including routers, switches, storage systems, servers and more.
• Operations Staff. Of course, you will need someone to manage your data center. Hire experienced, knowledgeable staff. One key consideration is to implement a permissions system, restricting access to certain areas to only those who need it. Requiring sign ins and badges can also be a helpful way to track and monitor activity.

Here are some of the key pieces of equipment essential in any data center:

• Routers. These devices direct traffic over your network, sending data between devices. Shop Now.
• Switches. Network switches are also used to connect devices to your network via a physical cable connection. Switches offer added layers of security and control of how data is transferred. Shop Now.
• Storage Systems. Of course, you need some means of storing all of the data you are managing. Flash Array Storage systems are commonly used, and many companies are now leveraging Hybrid Cloud Storage solutions as well. You should also be sure to make a plan for Data Backup and Recovery to minimize loss in the event of an unforeseen incident.
• Servers. Servers are essential data center equipment to manage network resources. There are many options to consider, from rack-mountable servers and tower servers to blade servers and more.
• Cooling Equipment. Without proper temperature management, data centers can heat up quickly, leading to overheating, equipment damage and downtime. Make sure you have the proper cooling systems in place to prevent overheating. Shop Now. 

There are three main types of data centers: managed data centers, colocation data centers, cloud data centers. Let’s take a closer look at each:

Data centers have been around since the invention of computers in the late 1950s. Back then, one supercomputer might have been comprised of an entire data center. But as computers got smaller and data processing needs got bigger, multiple servers were networked together to increase processing power and share information. These server farms can feature tens, hundreds or thousands of servers stacked together to provide data storage, backup and recovery, networking and data management services.

A managed data center may be managed in-house or completely outsourced to a third-party to manage their data center needs.

As data needs grew and computing became more advanced, more trends emerged. Instead of building and maintaining a data center in house, in the late 1990s, companies began to rent servers at co-location facilities (also called colos) to reduce the overwhelming cost of keeping everything onsite. With this shared data center model, it made sense to grant companies virtual access instead of physical access to various organizations and personnel. This lease-type arrangement gives small organizations access to the advantages of a professional data center without the need to expend large amounts of capital for facilities, technology and people.

In the mid-2000s, cloud computing really took hold. Without the need for companies to build their own physical facility, costs can be significantly reduced. Amazon first offered IT infrastructure services to businesses over the internet in 2006. The use of virtualized data centers increased by 32 percent in 2018 and there are no signs of this trend slowing down.