Comprehensive Guide to Data Center Infrastructure Management

Data centers are physical facilities which companies use to house important business applications and information. As data centers evolve, it’s critical to think long-term about the best ways to maintain reliability and security through effective data center management. The following contains the critical elements driving today’s data storage management, and that of the future.

Data Center Components

While data centers are often referred to as singular, they’re comprised of several technical elements including switches, routers, storage systems, security devices, servers, and more. IT departments use data center components to store and manage critical systems vital to a company’s continuous operations. Due to the importance of these elements, the constant evolution of a data center with improvements to reliability, security, and efficiency are top priority.

Data Center Infrastructure

A data center also needs facilities infrastructure managementto keep hardware and software running. This includes uninterruptible power supplies, power subsystems, backup generators, ventilation and cooling systems, and more.

Data Center Architecture

Larger companies often have multiple data centers across several regions. This helps protect the information from man made or natural disasters and gives the organization flexibility with how information is backed up. However, determining the data center architecture can be challenging due to nearly unlimited options.

Important data storage management questions to ask yourself include:

• Are mirrored data centers needed?
• How much time is needed to recover in the event of an outage?
• Is geographic diversity needed?
• How much space is needed for expansion?
• Do bandwidth and power requirements exist?
• Do you need a private data center or can you use a hybrid or public cloud service?
• What physical security is needed?

Data Center Standards

In 2005, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) published data center standards to help IT leaders understand what type of infrastructure to use. It defined four tiers of design and implementation guidelines. Tier one data centers are essentially a modified server room and tier four data centers have the highest levels of system security and reliability. 

Data Center Technologies of the Future

As technology grows and evolves, so do data centers. What we know of data centers today will likely look different than those in the future. As organizations become more dynamic and distributed, data centers must be agile and scalable. Often, data center management teams are left to play catch-up to meet the demands of IT in this era. These demands will only continue to increase.

The following technologies will help data centers evolve from being static and rigid to fluid and agile facilities that meet the demands of a digital world.

• Public Cloud Service: The rise of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) has given businesses the option of a virtual data center in the cloud. Others do a combination of public and private known as hybrid environments.
• Software-defined Networking (SDN): SDN helps allow the network to be agile and handle demand.
• Containers: A method of virtualizing a complete runtime environment allowing developers to run applications and their dependencies in a self-contained system. They’re lightweight and can be created or destroyed easily which is ideal for testing how applications run under certain conditions.
• Microsegmentation: Creates secure zones in a data center to isolate resources from one another to minimize damage in the event a breach occurs.
• Non-volatile Memory Express (NVMe): A storage protocol used to accelerate information transfer between systems to improve data transfer rates.

Data centers are critical to the success of businesses of any size. For expert data storage management solutions, contact Datera today.