How Does A Data Center Work?

Many of us know Data Centers as a large hall with a lot of servers, bleeping lights, high-speed internet connection, with the administrator running around managing the entire operation. It’s chaos. Well, it’s pretty similar to what you are thinking, but it can be different too. Data centres are active in different parts of the world with different motives. Some are industrial data centers that lease services. Some are private data centers used for data storage. 

Data centers may look different but have the same motive. They all work in the same way. In this post, we share detailed information about how the Data Center works in real life. Enough with the representation of the data center in the films, it is the time to learn about the working of the data centers.

Data Center Operations

There are data centers of different sizes. We are talking about data centers of massive scale; the ones that sites like Google, Facebook, and Amazon run are the large ones.

#1 - Server Racks

The server racks consist of all processing computers that are essential for the processing and storing the information. Each rack has a computer, which is configured according to specific needs. Mostly, the technical specifications are maxed out. The server racks are connected with a high-speed internet connection and a server operating system, mostly Linux or the Windows Server OS. The floor manager or administrator keeps an eye on the server racks and computers. Thus, the administrator keeps an eye on the performance and the connection of these service racks.

#2 - Network Administrator

The job of network administrators is to handle all network operations. From the incoming internet connection to outgoing data, the network administrator has to manage everything. A network administrator is one of the most critical jobs in the data center, as they ensure the entire network stays up and running. If any external or internal issue causes the system to shut down, the network administrator ensures the activation of the secondary network and resolves the problem with the primary network.

#3 - Power and Cooling

The power and cooling system are essential for the data center. Without the same, data centers won’t sustain for a long time. As the server racks need a lot of power to run, the power system needs to stay alive. The same racks generate a lot of heat, which has to be released from the racks. Therefore, an air conditioning system should be in place to counter the same. There is an active staff to maintain the power and cooling system for the optimum temperature and power generation.

Data center operations are more complicated than they look from the outside. The staff has to keep a strict eye on everything to ensure that data center operations run smoothly. If any problem arises, the team has to take essential measures to fix the issue within minimum time. So, these three are the core operations in massive data centers. In small data centers, these are also the core operations, but are at a minimal scale, so that even a single person can handle all operations with ease.