What’s In Your Data Center?

This week, SafeData announced the move of its data center to Boston, which leads me to a discussion about data centers and the key components that every data center needs to offer.

Wikipedia defines a data center as: 

“A data center or datacenter (or datacentre), also called a server farm, is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.”

With your organization’s data, applications and systems hosted at one of these facilities, it is critical that the center offers all the necessary features to protect your valuable assets, such as:

• Power Management – It needs to offer 100% redundancy and a backup fuel supply to ensure 100% availability in the event of a power failure. 
• Environmental Controls – The center must have a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system that guarantees the proper temperatures and controls ventilation and humidity levels. 
• Fire Detection and Suppression – With the significant amount of electronics in a data center, fire is always a potential hazard.  Making certain a sophisticated fire detection and sprinkler system is in place is critical.
• Physical Security – Every data center should have security guards, stringent security requirements, in addition to biometric systems and video surveillance cameras.
• Internet Connectivity – Real-time access to your data is key.  Make sure the facility offers Tier 1 Internet connectivity.
• Expansion – The center should offer the flexibility to expand your physical space as needed.  Look to the future.
• Compliance – Selecting a SAS 70-certified center will provide the necessary compliance features to meet the many industry and government regulatory policies in today’s market. 

If you have a question pertaining to data centers, data protection, data availability, data backup, data recovery or anything related to data, please post them below and let the SafeData community share their thoughts.