What Is A Data Center?

Why is it important to have a data center for that matter? A data center is a facility that will house a good amount of the electronic equipment (and information) that a business or group has and needs. There will be computers and communication elements in this area as well as a number of other vital components to keeping the business running smoothly. What is essential about a data center is security and maintenance.

Companies may have more than one data center as well. Most mid size or higher companies will have at least one data center though. There are many types of data that can be stored in these centers. For example, a financial institution will maintain their clients accounts, numbers and activities in the data center. Businesses will keep client names, accounts, and projects in a data center as well. Because the data a business has is so very important to their existence and their performance, turning to a data center is an excellent option for this type of storage need.

Inside of a data center you are likely to find various types of computers, internet servers as well as many other items. To keep these items safe, data centers are often built and secured physically as well as logistically to protect them. Security is extremely high. They can be one of the safest environments in the city. The main job of a data center is to maintain and run applications to allow businesses to access and manage their files effectively.

There are many information portals now devoted to the subject and we recommend reading about it at one of these. Try googling for “data center info” and you will be surprised by the abundance of information on the subject. Alternatively you may try looking on Yahoo, MSN or even a decent directory site, all are good sources of this information

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Managed Hosting: The Death Knell of Colocation Services

What is Managed Hosting? This is a question I found myself asking recently when I took a look at a website I knew previously to only provide colocation services. At first I was a little bit upset, because I knew that this particular provider provided excellent colocation services and was a little bit annoyed at the fact that they'd apparently changed their company's services to some new fangled thing I'd never heard of: Managed Hosting.

However, after doing some reading I found that this new and mysterious service they offered drastically reduced the complication involved in the project I was intending on launching. Allow me to explain...

Before I get into defining what Managed Hosting I believe that I should first explore the details of what colocation even is, for those that may have stumbled onto this article unaware. Colocation is a service provided by an internet service provider. Essentially, you provide them with a computer with your choice of operating system and software installed on it (depending on their policies), and they provide you with the bandwith and uninterrupt supply of power you need to run things on the internet. This can be anything from computer game servers to webservers for websites that are in demand of a large amount of resources.

There's a number of problems with this scheme of doing things, however! If you're providing the computer and software than that means you're going to also be administrating every aspect of it. This means that you're going to have to get it initially setup in the first place, make sure it is secure against all the known forms of attacks that can happen to your server, doesn't go down for days while you're upgrading software, and keep your software on your system up-to-date! This can all be very time consuming, and is vital to running a safe and ecommerce business. Afterall, you wouldn't want the website taking in orders for your business that holds all of your customers information to get HACKED, would you? This is something that I've been very hesitant of risking myself.

The truth is, the risk of running your own ecommerce business through the use of a colocation can be such a gamble if you don't know what your doing, that it may not be worth taking. But colocation offers possibilities for expansion (because of the large amount of computer resources at your disposal) and control that something such as webhosting may not give you.

This is where Managed Hosting comes in. Managed Hosting bridges the gap between the ease-of-use of standard webhosting services to colocation. Managed Hosting is essentially a service where you have complete administrative abilities over a system provided by your internet service provider, but they set it up, provide the computer to your specifications, and keep it up to date. Many of the service providers, such as RackSpace, also offer a zero-downtime guarantee and 24/7x365 phone and email technical support. This, in a very real way takes away much of the risk associated with colocation while still giving you the ability to put up a system to your specifications and it be SECURE. This alternative to colocation is taking the internet by storm, and is quickly becoming the standard of the industry for an easy and safe solution for internet business owners.

If you're interested in more information, tips, and information related to eCommerce head over to: For Building e-Commerce Web Sites!

Four Power System Problems Common in Colocation Facilities

The primary factor that determines uptime for servers in a colocation facility is power. Power outages will knock a network offline and even damage hardware such as motherboards, memory, and hard drives. Despite how intrinsic power is to keeping businesses connected to their networks, only 2% to 3% of colocation facilities have the right power systems in place. The other 97% of facilities most commonly lack redundancy, multiple units carry the energy load even if one unit fails, or have units that are running above capacity, so a unit failure will cause the other units to overload and fail. Every part of the power system – uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), transfer switches or circuit breakers, generators, and power distribution units (PDU) – should be redundant and running below capacity.

Problem 1: Non-redundant Power Grids
Multiple PDUs connected to separate power grids and multiple UPSs should be designed into the colocation facility to offset a power grid failure. Colocation facilities with redundant power grids can connect customer servers to different grids at the same time, so that even if one goes offline, the other will work, keeping the network running without interruption.

Problem 2: Non-redundant UPSs
The UPSs supply power during an outage until the generator can come online; if the UPSs do not turn on immediately at the time of failure, then the network will go down. Even with high quality UPSs, failures are common, so it is critical for there to be multiple redundant UPS units in an “n+1” configuration – all of the necessary UPSs, plus an extra. Functionally, this means that each UPS runs sufficiently below capacity to handle a unit failure without the other units overloading. If there are two UPSs, then each unit must run below 50%, so that if one fails, the other can continue without overloading. If there are three units, each must run below 66%; four units, below 75%. The current load is shown on the display on the front of the UPS.

Problem 3: Transfer Switch Failures
Most colocation facilities use mechanical transfer switches, which are not as dependable as circuit breakers, to switch power from the electric utility to the generator. These switches are one of the most common places the power system fails. Without redundant switches to transfer power at the same point, a transfer switch failure will mean that a network goes down.

Problem 4: Insufficient Generator Capacity
Generators supply power during an outage. To run without overloading, the generator must have capacity to run 1.5 times the total building load. Ideally, a colocation facility should have a redundant backup generator in case the primary generator fails, and the facility should have a process in place for switching power between generators. Having multiple generators is not the same as having redundant generators. One of the most common generator problems with colocation facilities is that the facility started out with a small generator and added generators as it grew. This creates multiple points where power has to be transferred during an outage, increasing the likelihood that a network will go down. As a practical consideration, the generators must be well-maintained, tested monthly, and fully supplied with fuel.

Points to Consider
Fewer than one in twenty colocation facilities have the best power systems in place despite the fact that power systems have the most impact on network uptime. Without well-maintained and redundant components running below capacity at every part of the system, network performance as well as server performance and equipment lifetime will suffer. To make sure that the power system at a colocation facility is robust enough to handle power and equipment failures, two words should be remembered: capacity and redundancy.

American Internet Services is the premier San Diego colocation service provider with state-of-the-art Internet data center technology. http://www.colocation.ccccom.com