As the hub of the information technology department, data centers are an integral part of daily functioning for most companies. Preserving your data keeps your company running, and any downtime of the data center results in lost money and time. What challenges to companies face when it comes to data centers? How can some of these challenges be mitigated?
Brief History of the Data Center
Data centers now occupy the space that once belonged to the super computers of the early computer era. In the early days of computing, dedicated rooms were required to keep the huge machines cool, safe, and free of dust and other contaminants. These dedicated rooms later became home to data centers.
In the 1990s, the complex systems employed by information technology departments were gathered together in these dedicated rooms. Client-server networking became standard for information technology departments, and the dedicated room was perfect for the hierarchical design of the data center.
Eventually, data centers outgrew these dedicated rooms. As the Internet age came into being, companies learned that having an Internet presence was an integral part of doing business. These new requirements of Internet data centers brought with them a host of challenges for many companies.
The Challenge of Physical Space
While the early data centers could fit in a single dedicated room, the advent of the Internet data center made it much harder to find space for all the necessary servers, cables, and other important equipment. Finding the space for all this equipment became a challenge for many companies.
Private data centers were created to solve this problem. Rather than find dedicated space for a large Internet data center on site, a company could outsource their data center needs and use the space for other activities.
The Expense of Operating a Data Center
Even for companies that can find the physical space to house a large Internet data center, the cost of operating a large data center can be prohibitive. Outfitting a large data center with the necessary technology is no small undertaking. Good servers are expensive, as is the rest of the necessary equipment.
In addition, staffing a data center isn't affordable for many companies. Internet data centers must be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that companies must pay their information technology employees to be on site and available during all times of the day. Staffing a data center during off hours can be very expensive.
Again, this is where private data centers have provided a solution. Rather than buying the equipment and hiring the staff for their own data centers, companies can use the services of a private data center instead. This has helped many companies significantly reduce the amount of money they spend on their data centers.
The Problem of Security and Reliability
Besides the challenges of physical space, equipment expense, and staffing, operating a data center also comes with a multitude of security and reliability challenges. A company is only as reliable as its data center, and if the data center goes down for any reason, a company usually has to suspend operations.
Reliability and security depend on having properly trained staff and good security practices in place. In addition, a good disaster recovery plan is necessary in make it easier for a company to come back from a major event.
Private data centers help many companies with this challenge by taking on the responsibility of storing the data securely. Finding a private data center can drastically reduce the stress associated with providing secure data storage and can make recovering from a disaster as quick and easy as possible.