
7 Vital Data Center Design Secrets That Will Keep Your Business Running Smoothly
Data Center are the beating heart of any organization. They house all of your company’s digital assets and keep them accessible to users when they need them most. Even though designing a data center is not exactly rocket science, it does involve some tricky considerations.
How can you design a data center that’s future-proof and cost-effective?
How much should you invest in cybersecurity?
What kind of redundancy do you need?
These might seem like basic questions, but they get more complicated once you start diving into the details.
Fortunately, we have you covered with insider tips on how to build a resilient data center that won’t break down anytime soon.
To help get you started on the right path,
Here are 7 essential data center design secrets that will keep your business running smoothly
1- Define Your Data Center Objectives
Before you start sketching out your data center design, you should first define your objectives. This will help you identify the areas that require the most focus and attention. For example, you may want to optimize energy efficiency or prioritize security. Whatever your objectives are, they’ll help you make better decisions and prioritize design elements that matter most. They’ll also guide you through the discovery and procurement processes. This will save you a lot of time, money, and effort in the long run. Your data center design should meet your organization’s needs and be flexible enough to accommodate future changes. Make sure you have a clear understanding of how your data center operates. This will help you identify any pain points that may be holding you back from achieving your objectives
2- Diversify Against Operational Risk
The moment you plug your data center into the grid, you become vulnerable to operational risk from a variety of outside sources.
Energy fluctuations, network outages, and physical disasters can disrupt your business continuity at any moment.
To combat this, you should diversify your data center’s design against operational risk. You can do this by adopting a multi-site strategy. This kind of design distributes critical data assets across multiple geographic regions. This way, if a natural disaster hits one area, it won’t impact the others. Alternatively, you can adopt a hybrid cloud design. This will allow you to leverage public cloud services for non-critical workloads or burstable capacity. This will provide you with the scalability and availability you need without the cost and complexity of a multi-site architecture.
3- Plan for Manual Recovery Processes
When designing your data center, you should always plan for manual recovery processes. This is especially important if you host regulated data or critical assets in your environment.
You need to have a clear understanding of how your team will restore functionality in the event of a disaster. You’ll also want to ensure that you’re following all compliance and regulatory standards.
Always keep your design and processes under review to make sure they remain consistent with best practices. You can also take manual recovery a step further by using manual failover procedures. This will allow you to manually transfer data to a secondary data center in the event of an outage. Manual failover is not a common practice, as it is generally more expensive than a standard automated failover. However, it does give you a lot of flexibility and control during an emergency. It can also be used to test your disaster recovery plan.
4- Consider Environmental Conditions
Your data center will probably be located in an unglamorous industrial space — not in the bowels of Hogwarts. However, you can make the most of the space you have by considering the environmental conditions in which you’ll be hosting your equipment.
Your data center’s design should account for local weather conditions and any potential flooding risks. You should also keep in mind any noise-related issues that might come into play. How much noise will your equipment generate?
Will it be loud enough to disrupt the surrounding area? What can you do to mitigate these issues? All of these environmental details matter, as they can impact your bottom line. You should also keep an eye on your energy consumption. How much energy will your data center use? What are the best ways to minimize energy costs? What energy sources are available to you? These are just a few of the questions you’ll want to ask yourself before finalizing your data center design. Your data center’s design should account for these factors and more to help you save money and meet your sustainability goals.
5- Lock-in Vendors That Meet Your SLA Requirements
Once you have a design in place, you’ll need to lock in vendors that can help you achieve your objectives. Be sure to look for vendors that can meet your service level agreement requirements.
This will help ensure that you receive the same level of service in the event of a natural disaster or other disruption. You should also consider hiring your own internal staff to avoid dependency on third-party vendors. This will help you better control costs and ensure maximum uptime. Another component of vendor selection is cybersecurity. You should only partner with vendors that have been vetted and meet a certain standard. This will help you avoid costly data breaches and other malicious attacks.
6- Don’t Forget About Infrastructure Flexibility
As you’re designing your data center, it’s important to keep in mind infrastructure flexibility. This refers to your ability to adapt and make changes as needed. This will help you avoid long-term financial commitments and dependency on specific vendors.
It will also allow your business to pivot and respond to changing market conditions and user needs. For example, your infrastructure should be flexible enough to handle different types of load balancing and traffic routing. This will ensure that your business remains online and accessible at all times. You should also consider how you can scale your infrastructure when necessary. This will allow you to meet sudden increases in demand without incurring significant costs.
7- Plan for Data Center Management
Finally, you want to plan for data center management. This refers to your ability to monitor, control, and keep tabs on all of your equipment. This is especially important if you host critical assets in your data center. You can do this by implementing an asset management system that tracks all equipment, software, and licenses. It will help you keep tabs on everything and catch potential problems before they become critical issues. These are just a few of the many considerations you’ll want to keep in mind when designing your data center. This will help you create a resilient environment that’s future-ready and meets the needs of your organization.
Also read: UPS RECYCLING: IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS
Before you go
When designing your data center, it’s important to consider the various elements that will go into it. These include operational risk, environmental conditions, infrastructure flexibility, and data center management.
Doing so will help you create a resilient environment that’s future-ready and meets the needs of your organization. With the data center design secrets outlined above, you’ll be well on your way to building a data center that meets your organization’s needs. From energy efficiency to security, there are tons of crucial considerations to take into account. With the right strategy, though, you can create a digital fortress that will keep your organization online even in the face of disaster.
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