One of the most important functions of the data center

One of the most important functions of the data center, is security and maintenance. This is because ultimately, the data center is a computer system’s most vulnerable component. If the data center is large or contains large amounts of sensitive information, video camera surveillance and permanent security guards will probably be present. Physical security requires that personal access is usually restricted to a select few individuals.

In addition to general types of security, since the information stored within the data center, is very critical to the operation of a company, it should be protected from other types of loss, as well as theft. The security measures employed by data centers need to be strong enough to handle climate control, and contain backup systems which rely on battery power, so that they may continue to function in the case of an interruption of electrical power.

Web Hosting

With regard to web hosting, data centers are employed to store servers (housing shared accounts, dedicated servers, or colocated servers) and other types of applications. The physical layout of a data center may occupy from one room of a building, one or more floors, up to an entire building. The equipment is often in the form of 1U type servers, situated in 19 inch rack cabinets, usually placed in single rows, with corridors between them, for easy access. Mainframe computers, storage devices and other kinds of equipment (such as cooling units, fire suppression, uninterruptible power supplies), often as large as the racks, are sometimes placed alongside of them.

The Planet is an example of a company that offers colocation services. You can read an overview of their data centers here:http://www.theplanet.com/why_the_planet/data_centers/. The company also offers something which is almost colocation – or maybe more like a hybrid of colocation and dedicated servers. The company calls it private racks – read up on it here:Â http://www.theplanet.com/specialized_solutions/private_racks/.

A long-time player in the colocation space is a company called Level 3. According to the Level 3 website, the company has laid a network that spans 47,000 miles – and is continuously upgradable. You can read up on the Level 3 colocation services here:Â http://www.level3.com/wholesale/services/data/colocation.html
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