The Details of Running and Maintaining a Data Center

The Details of Running
and Maintaining a Data
Center
Ethernet cables are not the most popular, talked about cables. But if
your cable tears, the whole house is going to put effort to immediately
replace it. What happens if a few cables at a data center damage?
Nothing good, of course. Your essential navigation app can suddenly
stop working, or your work chat app can crash. The result can be
anything from ‘eh’ to insanity.
Our dependence on apps has made it close to impossible to live in a
scenario where we don’t constantly need them for something or the
other. No matter what, the cloud must sustain. And for that, the data
centers that power it. Owning a data center has become a lucrative
business. But before you begin, there are certain things you need to
take care of.
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Let’s explore the finer details of running and maintaining a data center.
There are certain basic things that you have to take care of here:
● Electricity
● Cabling
● Cooling
● Securitye
A detailed overview of the basics:
Electricity
While the pyramid of basic needs has come to include Wi-Fi, the truth
is that electricity comes above it. Without it, the cloud wouldn’t exist.
That makes electricity a priority for your data center. You must have a
backup power supply for emergencies. Natural calamities as well as
other factors affect power supply and most of them are unpredictable.
Since human presence is anyway less in a data center, you have to
make arrangements in a way that the electricity remains on without
human interaction necessary. The backup generator must be powerful
enough to take care of things for a decent duration of time. You can
also set it up to supply power to certain parts of the center based on
priority so that those can perform optimally for a longer time.
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Cabling
Next in line of things to take care of here are cables! The cable you use
here determines the ping time for the apps that use this data center for
their services. It also determines the quality of data that passes
through. You need to invest in bulk Ethernet cable solutions in variants
if you need to. Be sure to get the ​Cat5E cable​. Depending on your data
canter’s requirement, you can upgrade it to Cat6a, Cat7 or Cat8
Ethernet cable. The Cat5E cable is more than sufficient for mid-level
speed and reliability requirements. You can go about wiring your data
center in two ways:
Unstructured Cabling
As the name suggests, there is no organized structure to it and it is
point-to-point. Without fixed pathways for the cables, the airflow in
this structure is often restricted and can create heating issues. When
these servers crash or they need maintenance, and they will, the
downtime increases because you have to sort through a messy system
to determine where the issue is or which cable needs to change. It also
becomes challenging to add or remove servers in this situation. The
only positive thing here is that if you are putting it together the first
time, it is quick. The problems come after. Of course, spending more
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time on maintenance is not ideal, and therefore this type of cabling is
not ideal.
Structured Cabling
A well-organized system where each cable has a label is the preferred
way of cabling in a data center. Everything in this system is predefined
from the type of cable to where it goes. Extensive planning goes behind
this. This system makes it easy to maintain the facility and keeps a clear
airway for ventilation. Out of the two types of cabling, structured
cabling is by far the superior one.
Cooling
The best way to control the temperature in this setup is to control the
lighting. Light makes things hot and there is not much use of it here.
You can make the most of natural ventilation by installing windows in a
way that the sunlight doesn’t come in. Additionally, you’d have to install
special cooling units per specific number of racks. In case of
fluctuations in temperature, you have to implement a smart
environmental management system. The fact that these centers
operate without much human requirement, makes it much easier to
maintain the temperature effectively.
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Security
Even though this is the last point, it is in no way the least important
one. You have to take measures against data breaches, as well as human
errors. But you also have to take care of the design of the data center in
a way that it can withstand earthquakes, floods, and other natural
calamities. Security cameras are also essential here, they should be
ones that can see in low light, and store video feeds for longer periods.
The investments that you will have to make to set up a data center are
bulk Ethernet cable​, a building or a room, depending on the size of
your center, electricity, security equipment, etc.
You can rent out servers to companies or start-ups or you can even
rent the entire data center, depending on demand and how you want to
go about it. But if you go about these four elements carefully, it will
make your center ideal for any company or start-up.
This Blog is Originally posted here:
https://www.sfcable.com/blog/details-running-maintaining-data-cent
er/
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