What Is a Modern Data Center?

As the implementation of cloud computing and colocation service becomes increasingly pervasive, data center, which is the core infrastructure of cloud computing, becomes increasingly advanced. The advancements of data center are influenced not only by the enhancements of computing components, but also by the popular demand to ensure data center’s reliability, flexibility, scalability, and five 9s uptime. A modern data center thus has to be able to make sure that its users will benefit a lot from it without having to suffer unnecessary shortcomings.

In general, one criteria of a modern data center is that it must be economical and efficient. How can such excellent data center be achieved? Data center infrastructure becomes more and more complex. Without strategic management, a complex data center infrastructure may require more money to operate and may become less efficient. Some colocation service providers, as well as their clients, try to alleviate this problem by making the data center more modular and converged. Modular data center infrastructure is easier and less expensive to manage because adding and removing components will be just like adding or removing building blocks to and from the infrastructure. Converging data center infrastructure allows it to use fewer components, and therefore less cost, to operate. Instead of using two specialized components for computing and storage, converging the infrastructure allows the use of one component to accommodate numerous tasks. Other strategies that are commonly used to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of a data center include introducing hybrid system and using commodity hardware that runs distributed software.

Cost-effectiveness and efficiency are always two important features of a modern data center. Prioritizing on those features when developing a data center is necessary; however, the entire effort must not involve a big sacrifice that may adversely affect the performance of the data center.