A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e. g. , air conditioning, fire suppression), and special security devices.
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History
Data centers have their roots in the huge computer rooms of the early ages of the computing industry. Early computer systems were complex to operate and maintain, and required a special environment in which to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all the components, and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised, such as standard racks to mount equipment, elevated floors, and cable trays (installed overhead or under the elevated floor). Also, old computers required a great deal of power, and had to be cooled to avoid overheating. Security was important – computers were expensive, and were often used for military purposes. Basic design guidelines for controlling access to the computer room were therefore devised.
During the boom of the microcomputer industry, and especially during the 1980s, computers started to be deployed everywhere, in many cases with little or no care about operating requirements. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. However, as information technology (IT) operations started to grow in complexity, companies grew aware of the need to control IT resources. Information technology ( IT) as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA is "the study design development implementation support With the advent of client-server computing, during the decade of 1990, microcomputers (now called "servers") started to find their places on the old computer rooms. The availability of inexpensive networking equipment, coupled with new standards for network cabling, made it possible to use a hierarchical design which put the servers in a specific room inside the company. The use of the term "data center", as applied to specially design computer rooms, started to gain popular recognition about this time.
The boom of data centers came during the dot-com bubble. The " dot-com bubble " (or sometimes the " IT bubble " was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2001 (with a climax on March 10 Companies needed fast Internet connectivity and non-stop operation to deploy systems and establish a presence on the Internet. Installing such equipment was not viable for many smaller companies. Many companies started building very large facilities, called "Internet data centers", or IDCs, which provide businesses with a range of solutions for systems deployment and operation. New technologies and practices were designed to handle the scale and the operational requirements of such large scale operations. These practices eventually migrated towards the private data centers, and were largely adopted because of their practical results.
As of 2007, data center design, construction, and operation is a well-known discipline. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Standard documents from accredited professional groups, such as the Telecommunications Industry Association, specify the requirements for data center design. The Telecommunications Industry Association ( TIA) is a trade association in the US that represents about 600 Telecommunications companies Well-known operational metrics for data center availability can be used to evaluate the business impact of a disruption. There is still a lot of development being done in operation practice, and also in environmentally-friendly data center design.
Requirements for modern data centers
IT operations are a crucial aspect of most organizational operations. One of the main concerns is business continuity; companies rely on its information systems to run its operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stopped completely. It is necessary to provide a reliable infrastructure for IT operations, in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason a data center has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must therefore keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment.
Data center classification
The TIA-942:Data Center Standards Overview describes the requirements for the data center infrastructure. The simplest is a Tier 1 data center, which is basically a computer room, following basic guidelines for the installation of computer systems. The most stringent level is a Tier 4 data center, which is designed to host mission critical computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls methods. Biometrics ( ancient Greek: bios life metron measure refers to two very different fields of study and application
Physical layout
A data center can occupy one room of a building, one or more floors, or an entire building. Most of the equipment is often in the form of servers racked up into 19 inch rack cabinets, which are usually placed in single rows forming corridors between them. This allows people access to the front and rear of each cabinet. Servers differ greatly in size from 1U servers to huge storage silos which occupy many tiles on the floor. In Computing, a pizza box is a style of case for Computers They tend to be very thin normally one or two Rack units (1U or 2U in height making Some equipment such as mainframe computers and storage devices are often as big as the racks themselves, and are placed alongside them. Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as Big Iron) are Computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications typically bulk data Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital
The physical environment of the data center is usually under strict control:
- Air conditioning is used to control the temperature and humidity in the data center. The term air conditioning refers to the cooling and dehumidification of indoor air for Thermal comfort. ASHRAE recommends a temperature range of 20–25 °C and humidity range of 40–60% as optimal for data center conditions. The American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers ( ASHRAE; pronounced 'ash'-'ray' is an international technical society for all individuals The electrical power used by the electronic equipment is converted to heat, which is rejected to the ambient air in the data center space. Unless the heat is removed, the ambient temperature will rise, resulting in electronic equipment malfunction. By controlling the space air temperature, the server components at the board level are kept within the manufacturer's specified temperature/humidity range. Air conditioning systems help control space humidity within acceptable parameters by cooling the return space air below the dew point. Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air In daily language the term "humidity" is normally taken to mean Relative humidity. The dew point (sometimes spelled dewpoint) is the Temperature to which a given parcel of Air must be cooled at constant Barometric pressure, Too much humidity and water may begin to condense on internal components. Condensation is the change of the physical state of aggregation (or simply state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase In case of a dry atmosphere, ancillary humidification systems may add water vapor to the space if the space humidy is too low, which can result in static electricity discharge problems which may damage components. Electrostatics is the branch of Science that deals with the Phenomena arising from what seems to be stationary Electric charges Since Classical
- Backup power is catered for via one or more uninterruptible power supplies and/or diesel generators. An uninterruptible power supply ( UPS) also known as a continuous power supply ( CPS) or a battery backup is a device which maintains a continuous In Electricity generation, an electrical generator is a device that converts Mechanical energy to Electrical energy, generally using Electromagnetic
- To prevent single points of failure, all elements of the electrical systems, including backup system, are typically fully duplicated, and critical servers are connected to both the "A-side" and "B-side" power feeds. Reliability engineering is an Engineering field that deals with the study of Reliability: the ability of a System or component to perform its required This arrangement is often made to achieve N+1 Redundancy in the systems. An N+1 redundancy is a system configuration in which multiple components (N have at least one independent backup component to ensure system functionality continues in the event of Static switches are sometimes used to ensure instantaneous switchover from one supply to the other in the event of a power failure.
- Old data centers typically have raised flooring made up of 60 cm (2 ft) removable square tiles. A raised floor (also raised flooring) is a type of Floor used in Office buildings (such as IT Data centers with a high requirement The trend is towards 80-100cm void to cater for better and uniform air distribution. These provide a plenum for air to circulate below the floor, as part of the air conditioning system, as well as providing space for power cabling. Data cabling is typically routed through overhead cable trays in modern data centers. A cable tray system according to the US National Electrical Code is "a unit or assembly of units or sections and associated fittings forming a rigid structural system used to But some are still recommending under raised floor cabling for security reasons and to consider the addition of cooling systems above the racks in case this enhancement is necessary. Smaller/less expensive data centers without raised flooring may use anti-static tiles for a flooring surface.
- Data centers feature fire protection systems, including passive and active active design elements, as well as implementation of fire prevention programs in operations. Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of Fires ref>NFPA Fire Protection Handbook pg Passive fire protection (PFP is an integral component of the three components of structural Fire protection and fire safety in a Building. Active fire protection (AFP is an integral part of Fire protection. Fire safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a Fire that may result in death injury or property damage alert those in a structure Smoke detectors are usually installed to provide early warning of a developing fire by detecting particles generated by smoldering components prior to the development of flame. A smoke detector is a device that detects Smoke and issues an Alarm. This allows investigation, interruption of power, and manual fire suppression using hand held fire extinguishers before the fire grows to a large size. A fire sprinkler system is often provided to control a full scale fire if it develops. A fire sprinkler system is an Active fire protection measure consisting of a water supply providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system Clean agent fire suppression gaseous systems are sometimes installed to supress a fire earlier than the fire sprinkler system. Gaseous fire suppression is a term to describe the use of inert Gases and chemical agents to extinguish a Fire. Passive fire protection elements include the installation of fire walls around the data center, so a fire can be restricted to a portion of the facility for a limited time in the event of the failure of the active fire protection systems, or if they are not installed. A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system
- Physical security also plays a large role with data centers. Physical access to the site is usually restricted to selected personnel. Video camera surveillance and permanent security guards are almost always present if the data center is large or contains sensitive information on any of the systems within. A video camera is a Camera used for electronic Motion picture acquisition initially developed by the Television industry but now common in other applications A security guard or security officer is usually a privately and formally employed person who is paid to protect Property, assets or people
Network infrastructure
Communications in data centers today are most often based on networks running the IP protocol suite. A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics The Internet Protocol ( IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a Packet-switched Internetwork using the Internet Protocol In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing Data centers contain a set of routers and switches that transport traffic between the servers and to the outside world. A router ('rautər in the USA 'rutər in the UK and Ireland, or either pronunciation in Australia and Canada is a Computer whose software and hardware are usually A Redundancy of the Internet connection is often provided by using two or more upstream service providers (see Multihoming). In Engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the System, usually Multihoming is a technique to increase the reliability of the Internet connection for an IP network
Some of the servers at the data center are used for running the basic Internet and intranet services needed by internal users in the organization, e. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols and network connectivity to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational g. , e-mail servers, proxy servers, and DNS servers. Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving In Computer networks a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program which services the requests of its clients by forwarding The Domain Name System (DNS is a hierarchical naming system for computers services or any resource participating in the Internet.
Network security elements are also usually deployed: firewalls, VPN gateways, intrusion detection systems, etc. A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system In Telecommunications, the term gateway has the following meaning In a Communications network, a network node equipped for interfacing with An Intrusion detection system ( IDS) is software and/or hardware designed to detect unwanted attempts at accessing manipulating and/or disabling of computer systems Also common are monitoring systems for the network and some of the applications. Additional off site monitoring systems are also typical, in case of a failure of communications inside the data center.
Applications
The main purpose of a data center is running the applications that handle the core business and operational data of the organization. Such systems may be proprietary and developed internally by the organization, or bought from enterprise software vendors. Enterprise software is Software intended to solve an enterprise problem (rather than a departmental problem and often written using an Enterprise Software Architecture Such common applications are ERP and CRM systems. Enterprise resource planning ( ERP) is the planning of how business resources (materials employees customers etc Customer relationship management ( CRM) is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers
A data center may be concerned with just operations architecture or it may provide other services as well. Please note that the term operations architecture is also used in an aerospace context
Often these applications will be composed of multiple hosts, each running a single component. Common components of such applications are databases, file servers, application servers, middleware and various others. A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system In Computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for the shared storage of Computer files (such In n-tier architecture an application server is a Server that hosts an API to expose Business Logic and Business Processes for use by other Middleware is computer Software that connects Software components or applications
Data centers are also used for off site backups. Companies may subscribe to backup services provided by a data center. This is often used in conjunction with backup tapes. Backups can be taken of servers locally on to tapes. , however tapes stored on site pose a security threat and are also susceptible to fire and flooding. Larger companies may also send their backups off site for added security. This can be done by backing up to a data center. Encrypted backups can be sent over the Internet to data center where they can be stored securely.
See also
- Central apparatus room
- Colocation center
- Disaster recovery
- Electrical network
- HVAC
- Internet exchange point
- Network operations center
- Peering
- Server farm
- Server room
- Sun Modular Datacenter
- Telecommunications network
External links
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab - Research, development, demonstration, and deployment of energy-efficient technologies and practices for data centers
- Data Center Journal - The Industry Resource for Data Center Information related to IT, Facilities and Design
- Data Center Knowledge - Daily news and analysis about the data center industry. Central apparatus room or CAR or Central machine room, are room or several rooms found at Broadcast facilities A colocation centre ( collocation center) (" colo " or carrier hotel is a type of Data center where multiple customers locate network Disaster recovery is the process policies and procedures of restoring operations critical to the resumption of business including regaining access to data (records hardware software An electrical network is an interconnection of Electrical elements such as Resistors Inductors Capacitors Transmission lines Voltage HVAC (pronounced either "H-V-A-C" or occasionally " H-vak " is an Initialism or Acronym that stands for " Heating An Internet exchange point ( IX or IXP) is a physical infrastructure that allows different Internet service providers (ISPs to exchange Internet A network operations center (or NOC, pronounced "nock" is one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer, Television Peering is voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network A server farm or server cluster is a collection of Computer servers usually maintained by an enterprise to accomplish server needs far beyond the capability A server room is a room that houses mainly Computer servers In Information technology circles the term is generally used for smaller arrangements Sun Modular Datacenter ( Sun MD, known in the prototype phase as Project Blackbox) is a portable Data center built into a standard 20' Shipping container A telecommunications network is a network of Telecommunications links and nodes arranged so that messages may be passed from one part of the network to another over
- Data Center Map - A google maps mashup of data centers around the world.
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