A central data processing service is commonly used to fill a critical mission on computers and telematics. It generally includes environmental controls (air conditioning system to prevent against fire, etc.), Emergency power and redundant, and a high physical security.
A data processing centre (data center) is as a place where various electronic equipment, especially computers and telecommunications equipment. As its name suggests, it serves primarily to process the information necessary for a business.
For example, a bank may use such a center, giving him information about its customers while processing transactions thereof. In practice, almost all medium-sized companies use such a center. As for large companies, they often use dozens.
The databases are often critical to business operations as well as they are very sensitive to their protection. For this reason, these centers maintain high levels of safety and service in order to ensure the integrity and operation of equipment on site.
Before the Internet bubble, millions of square meters to house such centers were built in the hope of seeing them held by servers. Since then, the concentration of centers has continued, with the development of specialized centers for which the most important challenges are the control of air conditioning and especially power consumption.
This movement has been incorporated in the green computing and aims to reach treatment centers called ecological data for which special tools have appeared.
Physical Components of A Data Center
- Air precise and stable in the data center
- Precise control of dust surrounding in the data center
- Unit of energy
- Emergency power supply and a backup unit in the data center
- System sophisticated fire alarm
- Automatic fire extinction by droplets or inert gas
- Raised floor inside the data center
Pipes for cables below and above the floor - Monitoring by CCTV cameras in the data center
- Access control and physical security
- Surveillance 24 / 7 dedicated servers (computers)
- Security Guards continuously present
- Cables Twisted Pair copper Ethernet (Fast or Gigabit)
- Fiber optic links between sites or between [switches / routers / firewall]
Data Center — Network
- Routers
- Switches
- Firewall
- Bridges
- Intrusion Detection System software
- Other important components in the data center, Etc.
Data Center Applications
The main tasks of the center are to provide a good network connection (internet, intranet, etc.) and high availability of the information system.
Accordingly, it is possible to deploy different software applications for business-critical tasks of business customers. These applications include managers of databases, file servers and application servers.
Data Center — Physical Facilities
A data processing center (data center) can occupy one room, a floor or entire building. Included are 1U (nicknamed “pizza boxes”) or more, “U” corresponding to a unit height of 4.445 cm (1.75 inches), stacked in racks, which are arranged to form single rows, This allows to move easily among the servers, both front and rear. Some devices, mainframes, for example, are similar in size to these racks. They are often placed at their sides.
The physical environment of the centers is under strict supervision:
Air conditioning to keep the room cool at all times, about 20 degrees Celsius. This maintenance is essential, since many electronic devices generate heat and will eventually fail when the temperature rises beyond a certain limit.
Fairways are alternated between cold aisle (before the servers) and hot aisle (rear of servers) to prevent warm air from accumulating at the bottom of the piece and requires more cooling. The hot aisles can then be targeted more efficiently to remove heat.
Recently, cold corridors have emerged in the data centers energy efficient. They consist of a sealed corridor which circulates cold air to the servers (sometimes the space between the machines is even blocked by caches to force fresh air inside them to borrow). Lower the temperature of the assembly allows for a greater density of servers.
The free cooling (air cooled) can limit the use coolers and thus reduce the energy bill. The free cooling is interesting that in settlements where the outside air is cold long enough during the year.
The cooling can be supplemented by cooling water, which is 4000 times more efficient than air for heat conduction.
The standby power can be supplied via a UPS and a generator or via a rotating group (no-break) coupled to an accumulator kinetics.
In order to prevent a loss of power, all electrical components, including backup systems, are usually doubled. The servers are called essential increasingly fed by a system that uses two independent electric sources inside the center.
The centers usually have a raised floor 60 cm, made of removable panels. This space allows the free circulation of air, as it facilitates the wiring of power and data through different paths cable. However, data centers are no raised floor (above the feeding racks, to support easier for heavy elements mainframe (IBM z10, etc.).
They often have complex systems of prevention and extinguishing fires. The modern facilities are often equipped with two alarm systems. The first detects hot particles emitted by overheated components of the equipment, particles which often cause a fire. In this way, it is possible to eliminate the source of a fire (sometimes, simply turn off one set of welding to eliminate the risk of fire).
Second system is used to activate a set of activities if a fire occurs. These systems are also dedicated a portion of the data processing center (data center). Coupled with excellent fire doors and other devices for containment, it is possible to control the fire and extinguish it without affecting the rest of the building.
The conventional systems for fire suppression are as harmful as the fire for electronic components. As a result, systems using Halon, an inert gas, have been developed. Removing oxygen from the room, he extinguished the fire. However, if a person is trapped inside such a room, she may die from asphyxiation. Many countries prohibit the use of Halon in such conditions.
Some newer systems have emerged. Some use the Aragonite and FM-200, while others moved on the issue of fine particles of ultra-pure water (this water is not electrically conductive, which does not damage the electronic components).
Security is also essential to the operation of such centers. Physical access to these centers is restricted to authorized personnel, as well as video cameras to track people on the spot. Also, security guards ensure if the center is large or contains information considered essential.
The use of servers in a data center generates a co: heat is dissipated by the servers. Junk here, it is however desirable and valuable in other areas: home heating, offices or even Arboretum.
Data processing center — Network
Communications within a center are now almost exclusively by Internet protocol. It therefore contains routers, switches and other equipment that ensures the communication between the servers and the outside world. Redundancy is sometimes obtained by making use of multiple network devices of different brands.
Some servers are used to provide users of the company Intranet and Internet services from which they need: email, proxy, DNS, file, etc.
Of network security appliances are also present: firewall, VPN, intrusion detection systems, etc. as well as systems for monitoring the network and some applications.
Data Center — Applications
The main purpose of a data processing center (data center) is to run applications that process data essential to the functioning of a society. These applications can be designed and developed internally by the client company or a provider of management software company. It may be typical of ERP and CRM.
Often, these applications are spread across several computers, each running a portion of the task. The components in the data center are the most common systems management database, files servers, application servers, middleware.
Study: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons.
