Speeding Up Your Organization’s IT Modernization Strategy Makes Good Business Sense

You may believe your staff and customers are the heart of your business, and you’re not wrong. These are the individuals that keep your company running and profitable. So, what are the brains behind your organization? 

Before you start patting yourself on the back, you’re not necessarily the right answer. Yes, you may be the one making the decisions but don’t discount your company’s data center. This is often the true brains behind a successful business. 

Creating essential strategies for accelerating IT modernization is key. However, it helps if you have a basic understanding of what goes into keeping your IT department running beforehand.

What is a Data Center?

If you’re not sure what a data center is, it’s tough to understand its importance to your business. In a nutshell, a data center is a physical space, it can be a room, building, or facility that houses your information technology infrastructure. 

Even if you’re using a cloud-based solution, the infrastructure is still in a physical location. This is the infrastructure responsible for creating, running, and delivering services and applications. Your data center also stores and manages the information associated with almost every aspect of your business.

Your business’s data center may be on-premise, in a public cloud, or managed by a third-party supplier. Your organization may use one or more of these types of data centers. Here’s a closer look at the three types of data centers.

On-Premise Data Centers

Also known as enterprise data centers, all of your IT infrastructure is located on-site. This includes your data. You may have a room or an entire building devoted to housing your data center and IT staff. This is the preferred model for companies that want almost complete control over their security protocols. 

 can make it easier to comply with the various data security laws like the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Both of these have rigid data security compliance regulations and violating a standard can result in hefty fines and other penalties.

Public Cloud Data Centers

If you don’t want to build a data center for your business or expand an existing one, the public cloud offers scalable solutions. If you have a data-intensive workload running in real-time, the public cloud can maximize efficiency, boost latency, and improve an application’s overall performance.

As we noted, the cloud is also scalable so it can easily handle both small and large workloads as needed. You’re sharing the cloud’s IT infrastructure with other authorized users and this can cause some security concerns. However, even the public cloud has robust cybersecurity protocols in place to keep your data safe from breaches. Best of all, if a disaster occurs and shuts your network down, your data stays safe in the cloud.

Managed Data Centers

Not every business has the resources to build, house, and manage a data center. While the cloud is always an option, it’s not always the right one for every organization. This is when you can turn to a managed data center.

If you’re not sure what a managed data center is, the simple explanation is you’re leasing the IT infrastructure from a third-party supplier. The third party also handles everything from administration and monitoring to managing the data center. This can be a cost-effective solution but it’s also crucial to work with a reputable and reliable third-party provider.

Components of Data Center Infrastructure

Now that you’re familiar with the various types of data centers, it’s time to look at the infrastructure. These are the components that make up a fully functional data center.

Servers

Your servers are computers that send data, services, and applications to users’ devices. An example is if an employee downloads an application to a personal computer, the information is sent from the server.

Data centers can use either rack-mounted, blade, or mainframe servers. Which is best for a business depends on multiple factors like available power, workloads, and data center space.

Storage Systems

Your servers have some storage capacity but it’s usually not enough. To ensure data isn’t getting lost, data centers install storage systems near the central processing units (CPUs).

You have a few options when it comes to the type of storage system. You can use direct-attached storage DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), or a storage area network (SAN). DAS is the most commonly used storage system, but both NAS and SAN also have advantages. Some data centers use all three types of storage systems to help ensure their data is always accessible.

Networking

Without networking, a data center is simply a collection of servers and other systems. Your networking consists of routers, switches, and fiber optics to deliver network traffic across the data center’s servers.

Your networking can be physical or virtual. The option that’s best for you typically depends on your business needs. Your budget can also play a role in your network configuration.

Power Supply and Cable Management

If your data center goes dark, there’s an issue. The power should always be on, even when your business is closed. If you’re not already using a dual power supply, now’s a good time to get started. A dual power supply typically includes electricity combined with other energy sources like batteries and solar.

Cable management is also something you don’t want to overlook. Most data centers have multiple cables connecting servers and other components to each other and power supplies. If you’re not managing your cables, you can run into problems with heat management and slower data transfer rates. Even signal transmission can be negatively affected if your cables are too close to each other.

Modernizing Your Data Center Is Key For Your Business’s Success

Data centers are complex, even for smaller businesses. Your data center essentially runs your business whether it’s on-site, in the cloud, or leasing the infrastructure from a third-party supplier. Whichever option you choose for your organization, you want to ensure you have the infrastructure necessary to deliver services and applications to your staff and customers.