A data center (or datacenter) is a facility composed of networked computers and storage devices that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate a large amount of data.
A datacenter is ideal for companies that need a customized, dedicated system that gives them full control in managing the servers. The companies usually use the infrastructure- power, space, types of equipment and many more. Datacenters are limited with the scope of expansion, once build you will not be able to change the amount of storage and workload a datacenter can withstand. Often small business and enterprises operate with the cluster of dedicated servers and several storages through these data centers.
Datacenters are principal repositories of all information technology related types of equipment including servers, storage subsystems, network cables, switches, routers, firewalls and physical racks and cables used to organize the whole datacenter. A data center must also contain adequate facilities like uninterrupted power, cooling system, ventilation, security access and proper provision of the alternate power supply such that datacenter won’t be prone to power hazard. All of this facility requires physical security and sufficient physical space to organize the whole infrastructure. Often most of the datacenters have a very high-security measure like surveillance cameras and biometric access to ensure that the facility is fully secured.
Datacenter Tiers
Their physical setup size and style does not define data centers. Datacenters can be defined by the various level of reliability, which is referred as data center tiers. In 2005, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) published standard ANSI/TIA-942, “Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers,” which defined four tiers of data center design and implementation guidelines. The higher the tier level of the datacenter the more reliable, robust, redundant, secure and resilience it is from its previous tier level.
Building a data center is very expensive as compared to renting a space in the data center because you will be building up infrastructure from the ground along with setting up all the data center facilities and installations. Moreover, you will be responsible for own maintenance, administration, and security of the whole infrastructure. A datacenter takes much longer time to get started and can cost businesses $10 to $25 million per year to operate.