Data center
[2][3] Since IT operations are crucial for business continuity, it generally includes redundant or backup components and infrastructure for power supply, data communication connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression), and various security devices.
However, as information technology (IT) operations started to grow in complexity, organizations grew aware of the need to control IT resources.
The use of the term data center, as applied to specially designed computer rooms, started to gain popular recognition about this time.
Many companies started building very large facilities, called internet data centers (IDCs),[10] which provide enhanced capabilities, such as crossover backup: "If a Bell Atlantic line is cut, we can transfer them to ... to minimize the time of outage.
According to Gartner, worldwide data center infrastructure spending reached $200 billion in 2021, representing a 6% increase from 2020 despite the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
[13] The latter part of the 2010s and early 2020s saw a significant shift towards AI and machine learning applications, generating a global boom for more powerful and efficient data center infrastructure.
[50] Residents living near data centers have described the sound as "a high-pitched whirring noise 24/7", saying “It’s like being on a tarmac with an airplane engine running constantly ...
[55][56] The field of data center design has been growing for decades in various directions, including new construction big and small along with the creative re-use of existing facilities, like abandoned retail space, old salt mines and war-era bunkers.
Some of the considerations in the design of data centers are: Various metrics exist for measuring the data-availability that results from data-center availability beyond 95% uptime, with the top of the scale counting how many nines can be placed after 99%.
There are several methods of separating hot and cold airstreams, such as hot/cold aisle containment and in-row cooling units.
Cold aisle containment is done by exposing the rear of equipment racks, while the fronts of the servers are enclosed with doors and covers.
Alternatively, a range of underfloor panels can create efficient cold air pathways directed to the raised-floor vented tiles.
[74] Hot exhaust pipes/vents/ducts can direct the air into a Plenum space above a Dropped ceiling and back to the cooling units or to outside vents.
[77] Video camera surveillance and permanent security guards are almost always present if the data center is large or contains sensitive information.
Access control at cabinets can be integrated with intelligent power distribution units, so that locks are networked through the same appliance.
Power draw ranges from a few kW for a rack of servers in a closet to several tens of MW for large facilities.
[93] Research in 2018 has shown that a substantial amount of energy could still be conserved by optimizing IT refresh rates and increasing server utilization.
Making servers taller left space for more effective heat sinks and enabled the use of fans that moved more air with less energy.
By not buying commercial off-the-shelf servers, energy consumption due to unnecessary expansion slots on the motherboard and unneeded components, such as a graphics card, was also saved.
[99] A power and cooling analysis can help to identify hot spots, over-cooled areas that can handle greater power use density, the breakpoint of equipment loading, the effectiveness of a raised-floor strategy, and optimal equipment positioning (such as AC units) to balance temperatures across the data center.
[103] By predicting the effects of these environmental conditions, CFD analysis of a data center can be used to predict the impact of high-density racks mixed with low-density racks[104] and the onward impact on cooling resources, poor infrastructure management practices, and AC failure or AC shutdown for scheduled maintenance.
Thus countries with favorable conditions, such as Canada,[107] Finland,[108] Sweden,[109] Norway,[110] and Switzerland[111] are trying to attract cloud computing data centers.
Singapore's new data centers shall meet very strict green technology criteria including "Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 2.0/MWh, Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.3, and have a "Platinum certification under Singapore's BCA-IMDA Green Mark for New Data Centre" criteria that clearly addressed decarbonization and use of hydrogen cells or solar panels.
Different liquid cooling techniques are mixed and matched to allow for a fully liquid-cooled infrastructure that captures all heat with water.
This combination of technologies allows the creation of a thermal cascade as part of temperature chaining scenarios to create high-temperature water outputs from the data center.
[125] Data centers have also generated concerns in Northern Virginia about whether residents will have to foot the bill for future power lines.
[127][128][129] Dynamic infrastructure[130] provides the ability to intelligently, automatically and securely move workloads within a data center[131] anytime, anywhere, for migrations, provisioning,[132] to enhance performance, or building co-location facilities.
[133] Side benefits include Communications in data centers today are most often based on networks running the Internet protocol suite.
Methods used for transporting data are:[137] For quick deployment or IT disaster recovery, several large hardware vendors have developed mobile/modular solutions that can be installed and made operational in a very short amount of time.
[140] They are typically located near the data source to reduce communication delays, as their small size allows several MDCs to be spread out over a wide area.
