An enterprise data center is a digital infrastructure facility owned and operated by a single organization to help them store, process, and manage their complex and critical database.
More importantly, it amounts to an organization’s IT infrastructure that caters to smooth, hassle-free business functioning and cuts down data management costs in an efficient manner by using smart planning and long-term resilient strategies.
Moreover, the modification of data centers into distinctive characteristics gave rise to a bunch of different concepts of data centers based on ownership, location, and services provided, and one such type is the enterprise data center.
**How does an Enterprise Data Center Operate?
**The operations and management (O&M) in an enterprise data center is similar to any other type of data center, it involves a series of steps to be followed, such as :
● Data collection: Data is collected from various sources and transmitted through a network (WAN or VPN).
● Data processing: After the data ingestion and transmission, the data is received by the servers and processed through multiple operations like encryption, compression, and formatting.
The processed data is then stored on storage devices (HDDs or SSDs)
● Data management: After storage, the data is managed through management systems, analytic tools, and data visualization through software and cloud management systems.
● Data distribution:The last step is distributing data to the end-users through well-designed, interconnected, multi-layered network systems to reduce uptime and increase redundancy.
Each step is just as important as the other; apart from this, stringent compliance norms such as GDPR, PCI-DSS, etc should also be adhered to.
However, the above steps highlight the working of different types of data centers, but they are not strictly identical in every sense; there might be modifications in the process in which data is operated.
Therefore, with some similarities, an enterprise data center works like any other data center; the only difference is the ownership model on which an enterprise data center is based. In an enterprise data center, the whole IT data center infrastructure related to data storage and processing is owned by the company. It is built likewise on-premises or off-premises in accordance to their suitability.
**Key Components of an Enterprise Data Center
**Now that you are familiar with the working process let us discuss the key components of an enterprise data center.
Basically, there are four main components of an enterprise data center: servers, storage systems, networks, and power and cooling systems.
Let us understand them briefly.
**Servers
**The foremost component an enterprise data center uses after data collection is receiving the data through several servers. It is a powerful computing capacity hardware that caters to storing, processing, and managing massive amounts of data.
Subsequently, servers can be of various types, such as rack servers, blade servers, tower servers, and hyper-converged infrastructure servers, each deployed according to the necessity.
**Storage Systems
**Storage of large amounts of overlapping data sets is a crucial component.
Various types of storage systems and hardware technologies can be used to securely store data, protecting it from potential leaks and unexpected deleterious phenomena.
**Based on storage systems:
**1. Direct attached storage such as HDDs and SDDs
- Network-attached storage or NAS
- Storage area network or SAN
- Object storage
**Based on storage technologies:
**1. Hard disk drives
- Solid state drives
- Flash storage
- Hybrid storage
**Enterprise Networking
**The most important component of an enterprise data center is connectivity across multiple devices and servers, which is made possible through resilient, powerful networking equipment, enabling safe and smooth transfer of data even when dealing with high workloads and traffic.
Some of the main components of a network system are switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, and NICs.
The most widely used networks are fiber channels, Infiniband, ethernet, and software-defined networking.
Moreover, networking systems can choose LAN, WAN, or SAN for smooth, hassle-free transmissions in accordance with the circumstances and data load.
**Power and Cooling System
**Since the data center’s physical facilities work continuously with a huge workload, there is a significant requirement for cost-effective cooling system solutions to help them keep running the system properly and reduce downtime. Even one hour of downtime can incur heavy losses for companies, resulting in poor performance and ratings.
Hence, it is crucial to prepare beforehand for sustainable cooling and power resources that are available independent of the external circumstances.
**Types of Enterprise Data Center
**There can be several different types of data center services, some of which are discussed in detail below:
**On-premise
**A data center located on-site of an enterprise in which full ownership, control, and decision-making of the data center remain with the enterprise as it is located on the premises itself, and there is no need to delegate responsibilities and roles to other data center segments.
**Colocation Data Centers
**Colocation facilities or colocation data centers are rental data storage and processing service providers located off-premises and available as per the demand.
**Cloud Data Center
**A cloud data center provides strong and efficient cloud computing infrastructure that enables the handling of massive amounts of data without needing huge physical infrastructure buildings. Examples of such services are SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
**Green Data Center
**A green data center is based on the principle of sustainability and green power, energy, and land resources to operate large data centers.
Despite their differences, each data center serves specific business needs and is available according to the companies' demands.
*5 Things to Keep in Mind When Building an Enterprise Data Center
*
**Location
**The location of building an enterprise data center is very important; conditions such as temperature and humidity can dramatically impact the working of hardware systems. As a result, choosing an area that is prone to natural disasters can be detrimental. Thorough research of the weather and area is a must before investing in any estate.
Moreover, choosing a geographical area where connectivity is reachable should be a priority. Rough terrain and high-altitude land, such as hilly areas, remote villages, etc., should be avoided since these regions are hard to operate and have connectivity challenges.
**Cost and Budgeting
**The cost of building an enterprise data center is enormous; one must keep in mind the budget structure of their business and then invest in it.
**Energy
**Since operating an enterprise data center needs 24*7 efficient cooling systems to avoid system failure, potential data loss, and power outage, the source of power generation should always be available and sustainable, such as hydroelectric power or wind and solar energy resources.
**Infrastructure
**Building an enterprise data center close to the market and its end user is crucial to reducing latency and minimizing downtime. In some countries, there are specially designated areas for economic growth (SEZs), which will serve as a beneficial hub for infrastructure since they are strategically located zones that offer better resource availability, a competitive market, and tax incentives for growth and development.
**Compliance
**There are different compliance policies for different regions, it is important to gather all specific information about compliance norms that are mandatory to follow. Government guidelines and standard benchmarks such as ISO/IEC 22237, TIA-942, and ANSI/BICSI standards should be followed to avoid any future adversaries.
**Conclusion
**As businesses continue to generate a massive intertwined web of complex data sets, a pressing need for organization, storage, operation, processing, and reduced uptime has also emerged.
According to research, the global datasphere is projected to grow to about a trillion gigabytes by 2025!
Moreover, this tremendous data growth is also projected to boost the growth of the data center industry, making it an attractive future investment business model.
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