Data center

Data centers are essential for global connectivity. Most enterprise applications and functions generate data that must be stored. Large enterprises in particular collect huge amounts of data, requiring many servers and enormous storage space. Often, a simple server room is not enough to manage the flow of data. That's what data centers are for, where data is stored in a secure location and monitored around the clock.

What are data centers?

A data center is a physical location that houses computers, servers, and other equipment used to store, process, and transmit information and data. Organizations such as businesses, government agencies and Internet service providers use data centers to operate their IT infrastructure.

Data centers typically have a large number of servers housed in racks or cabinets to save space. They are equipped with power supply and cooling systems to ensure that the equipment can operate efficiently and reliably. Data centers are also often equipped with security measures such as biometric access control systems and surveillance cameras to ensure data and systems are protected.

Data centers play an important role in providing services such as cloud computing, web hosting, email, and databases. They can also be used for scientific purposes, such as simulations and data analysis.

Where are the data centers?

In the near future, the amount of information will increase enormously. This data will have to be processed - so the importance of data centers will increase, which will also increase the space required for them.

Basically, the location of data centers is determined by business needs. However, there are important characteristics that can influence site selection: connectivity, climate and cooling, environmental conditions and regionality. Meanwhile, an important factor in the location decision is whether the data center is located in Europe, and thus whether the GDPR applies. For more and more companies it is important that the data remains within Europe and therefore intra-european data centers are particularly in demand.

What types of data centers are there?

There are different types of data centers, which can be distinguished by purpose, size and complexity. Here are some examples:

Corporate data centers: These data centers are operated by companies and support their internal IT systems, such as databases, applications and email servers.
Location data centers: These data centers provide space and infrastructure for multiple customers to house their own servers and equipment. Customers can take advantage of the data center's advanced technology and infrastructure without incurring the costs of building and operating their own data center. This term describes the operation of a data center in a third-party building. Collocations are specifically tailored to the needs of different users and offer companies the opportunity to outsource all or part of their own IT equipment to a state-of-the-art data center environment.
Cloud data Centers: Cloud data centers are specifically designed for cloud services where customers can access resources such as storage, processing power and applications over the Internet. These data centers are typically highly scalable and highly available to provide fast and reliable performance for thousands or millions of users.
Edge data centers: These data centers are located near users or devices that need to process or store data. They are often used for applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or real-time data processing. At its core, it is a traditional data center that a company operates at its site with a shared infrastructure. At the outside points (edge), local data processing is already taking place through the components deployed there.
Supercomputing data centers: These data centers house some of the most powerful computers in the world, used for scientific purposes such as complex simulations, data-intensive projects, weather forecasting, or genetic research. Their processing capacity, especially computing speed, is many times higher than that of the fastest normal computer.
Container data centers: They consist of one or more modules that are already equipped with all the components required for data center operation. In this way, data centers can be set up promptly at various locations without much effort. Containers can also be used to expand existing structures without any problems. They can take over regular operations or be used as an edge solution.