Data Center with its Types, Examples, and Components!

DigitalThinkerHelp
12 min readJul 12, 2022

Definition: A data center is a facility that is enabled with networked computers, storage system and mobile computing infrastructure, and they let you help to perform many IT operations like as storing, disseminating data, processing and applications. As they evolve from centralizing on-premises facilities to edge deployments to public cloud services and totally depend on data center architecture.

Data center is composed of many technical elements, and these are categories into three parts such as:

Computer: High-power servers offer the memory and processing power that help to run other applications.

Storage: Most sensitive data is stored in a data center, on media range from tape to solid-state derives along with couple of backups.

Networking: To make the connection in between data center’s components and to external world, like as switches, different types of modem, router, application based controllers so on.

Data Center Tutorial Headlines

In this section, we will show you all headlines about this entire article; you can check them as your choice; below shown all:

  1. Types of Data Center with Examples
  • Enterprise Data Center
  • Hyperscale Data Center
  • Colocation Data Centers
  • Wholesale Colocation Data Center
  • Managed Service Data Centers
  • Cloud Data Centers
  • Edge Data Center
  • Micro Data Center
  • Telecom Data Center
  • Container Data Center
  • Carrier Hotels Data Center
  1. Components of Data Center
  • Racks
  • Connectivity
  • Facility
  • Site
  • Support Infrastructure
  • Core Equipment
  • Power
  • Fire Protection
  • Meet-me Room
  • Environment Contol System
  • Hardware
  • UPS
  • Cabling
  • Energy Production System
  • Network Operations Room
  • Fail-safe Measures
  • Security

Let’s Start!!

Types of Data Center with Examples

In modern era, different kinds of data centers are available in the market that is based on how they are used technologies, energy efficiency and owned. Here, we will show you 11 major types of data center with their example as well:

  • Enterprise Data Center

Enterprise data centres represent to a private facility that lets support to IT operations only to one organization. Its location can be placed off-premises or on-premises depend upon the client’s convenience. This data center might be contains the couple of data centers situated at many global locations that able to support an organization’s key functions.

Enterprise data centers can be divided into sub data centers, like as:

Internet data center: In which, all components and servers perform as smooth functioning of web applications that are supported by this data center.

Intranet: It manages the data and applications with in main data center, and enterprise implements the data for their marketing, manufacturing, research and other functions.

Extranet: It is supported to Business-to-Business transactions within the enterprise data network, and these services can be accessed via VPNs or private WAN.

Advantages of Enterprise Data Centres

The main benefits of enterprise data center is that it lets to trace critical parameters like as power usage and bandwidth and update their software like as monitoring tools. Then it allows making easy to determine the upcoming needs and scale appropriately.

Its cost come with their developing enterprise data center facilities needs enlarge capital investment, maintenance of components, labour and other on-going expenditure of time.

Example Are:

Facebook’s Forest City Data Center that is placed in North Carolina

  • Hyperscale Data Center

Hyperscale data center is also known as Enterprise Hyperscale data center that lets facility owned and performed by the company end its support. These organizations are Apple, Google, Microsoft and AWS.

These companies provide the scalable applications, robust and storage portfolio of services to single or businesses. And hyperscale computing is most mandatory for cloud and big data storage.

It contains 500 cabinets upward and minimum 10,000 sq ft in its size, and usually having at least of 5000 servers connected along with higher speed, high fiber count network. It might be used external organizations on initial installs before getting to maintain inside.

Therefore, Hyperscale is a High Fiber Count utilized compare to Enterprise data center across the network.

Advantages of Hyperscale Data Center

  • It has great flexibility, organization have right to get scale up or down depend on clients requirements.
  • It can be enhanced the speed to market so they can delight their clients along with best offering services.
  • Don’t take any headaches to keep maintenance, so you don’t need to scrub your time in repetitive task.
  • Colocation Data Centers

Colocation data center provides the humongous services, and it rents out the rack space to business for their facilities and other network components and it also called the ‘Colo’. Mostly this data center is implemented by companies, which might not eligible to keep maintain their self-data center.

The colocation facility lets you offers the space, cooing, power and other physical protection for servers. It has responsibility for sufficient making to connect different types of networking components to other telecommunication and network service providers.

Advantages of Colocation Data Center

  • You have an option to choose the location of your data center that is nearby to your clients.
  • It has good reliability because colocation data center is developed along with high specification for redundancy.
  • The technical staffs are able to take care of different activities like as installing components, managing power, running cable and other technical tasks as well. Therefore, you are free mind about maintenance of server.
  • It also has good scalability because whenever your organization tries to expend own infrastructure then you can easily to append new server and other equipment’s as well.
  • Its price is not costlier to lease a colocation data center compare to establish your own structure, you can also take service as quarter or annual as your budget.
  • Often there arises the confusion about in between the colocation data center and a colocation server rack. Colocation data center means any organization that gets the all services to another company as a rent. But in colocation data center and a colocation server rack, organization gets renting out rack space along with in the data center to a couple of companies.
  • Wholesale Colocation Data Center

Wholesale colocation data center have of one owner selling space, cooling and power to enterprise and hypersacale such as standard colocation.

In this data center, don’t need to make interconnection because these services are consumed by hyperscale or large organization to keep their IT infrastructure.

Most of time, wholesale colocation offers the power, cooling and space.

Wholesale colocation organizations are attached standard colocation into their portfolio on the similar site, where it has possibility of this.

Whole colocation data center can only support less clients, depending upon the size of data center. Typically, it consists the range from 100 to 1000+ cabinets.

  • Managed Service Data Centers

This types of data center let third-party service providers keep maintain the data’s management, monitoring, and deployment. In which, all mandatory features are combined through a service platform.

Data center service providers keep maintain all technical details, including back end data. You can also manage this kind of data center services from a colocation facility, cloud data center or fixed size hosting size. Managed data center can be handling with two manners like as entirely or partially.

In partially managed, the company will have all admin control over the data center service and implementation.

In entirely managed, all technical details and back end data are controlled by service provider.

Advantages of Managed Service Data Centers

If you don’t have to any deal along with regular protection, maintenance and other parameters. Then this data center service provider having a responsible to keep maintain network services and components, upgrading system level program and other operating system and recovering service as well, if lost anything.

Example of Manage data center is “Fully-managed IBM Cloud Services”.

Managed data center services are used by midrange to large scale organizations.

  • Cloud Data Centers

Today, cloud data center is getting more popularity because in which the cloud organization keeps handle and take care of their hardware equipment’s with assisting of 3-party managed service provider companies. This lets clients to operate (websites & applications) and keep manage data along with virtual infrastructure working on cloud servers.

Some cloud service providers are Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, Google, and Amazon and so on. Whenever, data is getting to upload into cloud servers, and then cloud service providers spread the duplication and fragment this data across many locations to make ensure it is never damage. So, you can get restore your data, and you never lost it if something get damage.

There are two types of cloud data center like as Public and Private data center:

  • Public cloud service providers such as Azure and AWS offer the resources via internet to the publically to all.
  • Private cloud service providers provide the customized cloud services. They offer you singular access to private cloud like as Salesforce CRM.

Cloud data centers are most comfortable to all companies of any type or size.

Advantage of Cloud Data Center

You don’t have to pay any extra amount to invest in large infrastructure, heavily components, server and more. Just you have to pay for the service to utilize as long as you require it.

Don’t take headaches to keep maintenance requirement because they are able to take care of all thing like as upgrading software, installing systems, maintaining security, cooling and backups as well.

They have many flexible pricing plans; you can also adopt a monthly subscription and so on.

Examples of cloud data centers are Google, IBM, Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), Salesforce CRM etc.

  • Edge Data Center

Most recent of all, edge data centers are getting still in development phase. Edge data centers are smaller data center facilities placed nearby to population they are served. They implements the methodology of edge computing by bringing computation closer to system that create data to turn on faster operations. These types of data center lets companies to deliver content and serves to local users along with minimal latency.

They play a critical role in the edge computing concept that receives data storage and computation nearby to spot where it is required. Edge data centers can support IoT (Internet of Things) and autonomous vehicles to offer additional processing ability and improve client’s experience.

Enlarge portion of data captured by IoT and autonomous vehicles will be get processed locally, but few of it will be send back to data center. Edge facilities are attached to several other data centrer or large center data center.

Advantaged of Edge Data Centers

  • This data center is able to spread high traffic load smoothly.
  • Cache requested content and minimum response time for the user request.
  • It also lets to enhance the network reliability with helping of distributed traffic loads.
  • Edge data center provides the great performance by installing near to the source point.
  • Micro Data Center

Micro data center is a essentially of edge data center. This can be size in small like as small size of office’s room, just handling the data processed in a certain spot.

  • Telecom Data Center

Mostly telecom data center’s facility is captured by owned, as well as operating by the telecommunications or Service Provider organizations like as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, BT, etc.

Telecom data center needs higher connectivity and primary focus to drive content delivery, cloud services, and mobile services so on.

These kinds of data center holds 2 post or 4 post racks to house IT infrastructure and cabinets are getting to become more prevalent.

Can be hired own technical staff to get install and control the sites, initial stage of install and continual routine; most of sites get become lights out.

Mostly telecom data center’s facility is captured by owned, as well as operating by the telecommunications or Service Provider organizations like as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, BT, etc.

  • Container Data Center

Container data center is also known as ‘Modular data center’, these kinds of data center having portability nature that means you are eligible to implant it at any location where you have to require data storage, It consists the equipment’s and modules that providing the scalability for adding to cooling and power capabilities as well. You can also attach different module and merge them along with other modules or embedded them into data center.

Container data center has two variants:

Containerized data center manages the components into shipping container that lets transport to specific spot, and it has also own cooling systems as well.

Another kind of container data center keeps manages component or devices into capacity along with prefabricated equipment’s. And these elements are instantly installed on spot an added for more capacity.

  • Carrier Hotels Data Center

The main aim of designing this data center is to internet exchange target point for all data traffic that is belonging to certain location. These types of data center mostly focus on fiber and telecom providers than common colocation. Usually, they are situated downtown along with a mature fiber infrastructure.

For example: One Wilshire in Los Angeles has 200+ carriers in the building to supply connectivity to the entire traffic coming from the US West Coast.

Components of Data Center

Data center has many different kinds of essential components, which play the major role to perform their operational activities, below shown 17 core component of data center; you can check them:

Racks

Racks let you to mount all Computer hardware components into itself that allows to maximum use of space in facility. It might be toward the ceiling leaving just sufficient room for overhead cabling system, cooling and airflow.

Connectivity

Data center contains the many fiber connections to the internal that offered by several carriers.

Facility

Facility represents to space that is available for setting up all IT elements. It providing full time access to incentive data is what makes data centers the much more energy consuming facilities.

Site

Data center needs a site along with connections to grids, networks and physical infrastructure like as roads. Employees, customers and services also play major role for choosing a suitable site. Present, data center in cold climate may be decrease cooling costs as well.

Support Infrastructure

It consists all equipment that allows contributing to provide the highest available sustainability in way of uptime.

Core Equipment

Each data center comprises equipment and software for IT activities and storage of data and applications. For examples are servers; network infrastructure, like as switches and router and other information security components like as firewalls.

Power

A data center contains machine that might be dual power offered along with the data center having couple of grid connections. Electrical infrastructure in data center may be more complex along with features for distribution, switching and bypass of power.

Fire Protection

A data center have a fire protection like as smoke detectors and fire sprinkler system, and passive system like as fire-resistant barrier might also be utilized.

Meet-me Room

A space for telecommunications organizations to physically connect with their networks and exchange traffic

Environment Contol System

The system for getting cooling hardware and generating heat, ventilation, air conditioning, dehumidification and humidification for the facility. Cooling is a most essential component of data center. Data centers might be specifically developed and operated to minimize the power needed to cool equipment.

Hardware

A data center must be needed few hardware devices, which let to keep store data. This task of computing units, data storage devices like as solid-state drives and hard disk drive and other hardware components.

All hardware system including all servers, hubs, and switches are heart of sensitive data. To secure them, well maintained data centers implements the round the clock monitoring, CCTV surveillance, biometric identification, and various other security measures.

UPS

UPS stands for uninterruptible power source systems that offer protection from low power outages and unstable power supply like as surges.

Cabling

A data center contains the great length of cables that attach every machine to power, networks, devices and resources. This is common for data center to have a raised floor for easy access to cables.

Energy Production System

Each data center has a backup power like as a generator along with fuel storage. This is common for data center to have a solar panel system on roof otherwise near about.

Network Operations Room

A room for operational staff along with tools that lets you to monitor, administering, protecting computing resources and maintaining. This works as first line support that lets you to provide incident management, problem management and service desk.

Fail-safe Measures

This is very essential component of data center is fail-safe measures for all data stored along with that data center that means all data center hosts require maintaining and operating a backup data center where entire data is replicated and saved. Data center service providers must supply consumers along with backup geo-diverse redundant data center facility.

Security

This is essential final component for a data center that performs the task without getting any problem is security.

All hardware system including all types of servers, hubs, switches, etc.; they are heart of sensitive data. To secure them, well maintained data centers implements the round the clock monitoring, CCTV surveillance, biometric identification, and various other security measures.

Final Words

Now i hope that you have completely educated about what is data center with their types, examples, and components. If this content is helpful for you, then please share it along with your friends, family members or relatives over social media platforms like as Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, and more.

If you have any experience, tips, tricks, or query regarding this issue? You can drop a comment!

Have a Nice Day!!

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DigitalThinkerHelp

Hi i am Er. R S Banger. I have done B Tech as well as M Tech in CSE and doing Research on Digital Marketing.