Did you know that almost 90% of all data was created in the last two years? With large amounts of data, there needs to be a place to store it. That’s where data centers come in and are especially helpful for businesses.
Read on to learn what is a data center?
What Is a Data Center?
You may have an idea of the answer to the question, “what is a data center?” It’s exactly what it sounds like, a place for all of a company’s data.
This physical facility can store large amounts of data including critical applications. Depending on the network and storage resources, the design of a data center may vary. The goal of having a data center, besides keeping all information safe, is to enable the delivery of said data.
Generally, a data center design includes firewalls, switches, storage systems, routers, servers, and more. Because of the technological advancements in the world, data center services can be virtual networks. These networks can support the workloads that a physical center would.
Knowing how to store data in these networks is important because there are private and public clouds. Business data needs to work in a physical entity and the cloud. Looking back at 2020 shows the growth of data centers and what is to come in the future.
Importance of Data Centers
Data centers are especially important for business data. These entities get designed to support applications that businesses use such as:
- File sharing
- Emailing
- Customer management
- Databases
- Resource planning
- Big data and AI
- Collaborations and communications services
With data storage solutions, none of these things can get done. These are the essential activities every company needs.
Along with these activities, data centers can provide network infrastructure, storage infrastructure, and computing resources. Network infrastructure works to connect the physical and virtual world, data center services, and end-user locations.
Computing resources refers to the applications that a data center users. Application servers provide memory, processing, local storage, and network connectivity.
Data Center Types
Different data center types can benefit many companies. Some are owned by one organization while others get owned by many. The four main data center types are:
Enterprise Data Centers
These data centers get operated by multiple companies that built them. They are usually on a corporate campus and are optimized for the end-user.
Managed Services Data Centers
These centers get managed by a third party or a services provider for a company. A company leases it out instead of owning it.
Colocation Data Centers
These data centers are spaces rented out from a large data center. They are located off the company premise although the company manages and provides the components.
Cloud Data Centers
This data center is off-premise because it gets hosted by a cloud service. For example, IBM Cloud and other public providers.
Data Centers For Companies
With the advancement of technology, data centers are a necessary tool for companies to utilize. With many different types of service models available, there is something for every company. Data center services can help keep your data safe and support the daily applications your business uses.
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