How data center serves the Campus?
What is a Data Center?
A data center is a centralized physical facility store and manage student data and other critical data, and support applications such as research computing, email, online coursework and more. A common data center definition is a location where computing and networking equipment is used to collect, process, and store data, as well as to distribute and enable access to resources.
The Growing Role of Data
Data centers have existed since the early days of computers but have evolved dramatically as technology becomes cheaper, smaller, and more advanced. The early data centers were typically comprised of one huge supercomputer, but modern versions are now home to thousands of servers connecting to various communication networks.
The electronic exchange of data is now required for nearly every business and personal interaction. Even traditional tasks such as making a phone call, reading a book, or watching TV are now largely digital. This ever-growing demand for digital information requires vast amounts of computing and networking equipment, which are stored in data centers.
This mass of data now connects across multiple data centers, at the edge, and on public and private clouds. But it still has to be stored somewhere. So the modern data center remains as crucial as ever. However, it has to evolve to communicate across on-premises facilities, various cloud locations, and cloud providers. As a result, the modern data center infrastructure has developed from on-premises physical servers to virtual infrastructures that support applications and workloads in multi-cloud environments.
Data center architectures and requirements can differ significantly. For example, a data center built for a cloud service provider like Amazon satisfies facility, infrastructure and security requirements that significantly differ from a completely private data center, such as one built for a government facility that is dedicated to securing classified data.
The Core Components of a Data Center
1) Servers and IT Equipment
The essential components of any data center include cybersecurity systems, firewalls, routers, servers, storage systems, and switches.
A core commonality of all data centers is servers. A data center server is a high-performance computer that is packed with a lot more memory. It is vastly faster and a more powerful processor. A server or group of servers may be dedicated to a single task, multiple applications, or a specific client.
Storage devices, such as hard-disk, solid-state, and robotic tape drives are important to helping any data center run these servers. Another vital component is networking and communication equipment, which is necessary to maintain a high-bandwidth network between servers. This is comprised of routers, switches, network interface controllers, and endless miles of cables that help information to flow through the data center.
In addition to this hardware, data centers rely on software to run it. This includes various operating systems and applications that run on their servers, clustering framework software like MapReduce or Hadoop, and virtualization software to reduce the number of physical servers.
2) Facility Systems
At physical locations, data centers require security systems to prevent unauthorized access. They are typically protected by alarms, biometric scanners, gates, security doors, and security staff. The site will have emergency equipment like fire alarms, sprinklers, and safety measures to protect against the noise of the servers, fans, and more.
In addition to security, data centers rely on equipment that keeps the facility running smoothly. This includes power equipment like backup batteries and generators and uninterruptible power supplies. Cooling systems and equipment to handle air quality and temperatures, such as air handlers, chillers, fans, sensors, and water pipes and tanks, ensure servers run efficiently.
The primary elements of a data center break down as follows:
- Facility — the usable space available for IT equipment. Providing round-the-clock access to information makes data centers some of the world’s most energy-consuming facilities. Design to optimize space and environmental control to keep equipment within specific temperature/humidity ranges are both emphasized.
- Core components — equipment and software for IT operations and storage of data and applications. These may include storage systems; servers; network infrastructure, such as switches and routers; and various information security elements, such as firewalls.
- Support infrastructure — equipment contributing to securely sustaining the highest availability possible. The Uptime Institute has defined four tiers of data centers, with availability ranging from 99.671% to 99.995%. Some components for supporting infrastructure include:
- Uninterruptible Power Sources (UPS) — battery banks, generators and redundant power sources.
- Environmental control — computer room air conditioners (CRAC); heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; and exhaust systems.
- Physical security systems — biometrics and video surveillance systems.
- Operations staff — personnel available to monitor operations and maintain IT and infrastructure equipment around the clock.
Data centers have evolved significantly in recent years. As enterprise IT needs continue to move toward on-demand services, data center infrastructure has shifted from on-premises servers to virtualized infrastructure that supports workloads across pools of physical infrastructure and multi-cloud environments.
