What Are Data Centers?
Commercial data centers are designed to house data-containing computer servers in a climate controlled environment. Data centers are built to withstand environmental disasters such as fire or storms. They are also equipped with power-producing redundancy systems such as generators, uninterruptible power systems and flywheel generators to ensure continuous operation in most any circumstance.
Other People Are Reading
-
Enterprise Class Data Centers
-
Large organizations such as governments utilize the services of enterprise class data centers. These data centers are optimal for large organizations, which need to share data between different organizational divisions who do not share the same physical presence. By hosting their data in a single large data environment the divisions of the organization can minimize cost while sharing access to the data.
Shared Service Commercial Data Centers
-
Commercial data centers rent space to individuals and businesses who wish to host their data in a shared service environment where the costs of the data center can be shared with other tenants. Tenants may choose to simply lease space inside the data center for the placement of their own servers or they may choose to lease space on a server, which is owned and maintained by the data center. This arrangement disperses the cost of building a storm-resistant structure, providing physical security among all of the clients of the commercial data center and maintaining power backup systems and a climate-controlled environment.
-
Expanded Use Due to Bandwidth
-
The reduction in the cost of bandwidth incentivizes the use of data centers. Additional bandwidth allows data to be accessed remotely, which removes the need for data to be hosted at the same physical location as the user of the data. This opens up the ability for small businesses and individuals to take advantage of the safety and security provided by data centers while still allowing immediate access to the information hosted on data center servers.
Virtualization
-
Enhancements in virtualization technologies allow data center clients to share floor space and server space in a virtualized server environment. A virtualized server is a server that uses software to allow one server to mimic the functions of more than one server. These technological evolutions have incentivized large corporations to create data center farms to compete for users of a virtulized server environment. The term "cloud computing" is associated with the practice of using server farms to store data and accessing the data through the Internet.
-
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
