Understanding data centers
A data center is a facility that contains networking and computing equipment. Its purpose is to collect, distribute, process, and store large amounts of data. It can consist of just one server or more complex systems with hundreds or thousands of servers on racks (frameworks for holding or storing hardware). So, every organization, no matter what its size is, needs one.
Data centers are mainly divided into two prominent families:
- Traditional data centers: Always physically accessible
- Cloud data centers: Always accessible through the internet
Although those two types are so different from each other, it is difficult to find a facility that is only physically accessible or only accessible through the internet. Usually, traditional data centers are rooms or buildings directly owned by a private organization for internal use only. The majority of data centers are a combination of both worlds. Companies such as Amazon and Microsoft provide...
