Common Data Center Terms – Data Center Fundamentals

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The data center industry can be complicated to get a grasp on. Part of the reason for that are the terms and lingo. So in podcast 36 we thought it would be helpful to decipher some of the common terms that are used in the data center industry.

This is an episode of HawkPodcast, datacenterHawk’s viewpoints on the data center industry. If you enjoyed this episode, you can check them all out on our blog. If you’d like to know when we release future episodes, you can subscribe here.

Below are the terms we go over in the podcast above.

kW (kilowatt & megawatt) - These are the units of power measurement that leases in the data center industry are measured in. They refer to how much power capacity your IT infrastructure has access to.

Gross + E - A type of lease and also a simple equation for how much it will cost you to be in a data center. “Gross” stands for having the right to access the power infrastructure and “E” stands for the actual power that you utilize.

Triple Net Lease “NNN” - This is a different type of lease from the “Gross + E” that we mentioned above. A “Triple Net Lease” is mainly reserved for larger companies who will take care of some of the building operating costs that are usually provided by the data center operator themselves.
Carrier Neutral Facility - A facility that offers multiple fiber providers instead of just one. Almost all multi-tenant data centers today are carrier-neutral facilities.

Ping, Power, & Pipe - This is a phrase for referring to the basic components of a data center colocation lease. It is another way of referring to power, space, and cooling.

Managed Services - Any service that a data center provider will offer in addition to power, space, and cooling, for example, firewall management, remote hands or rack and stack.

Rack & Stack - Another example of a managed service where the provider will assemble your hardware for you in their facility.

Purpose-Built / Retrofit - These are the two different types of data center construction. Purpose-built means the reason a facility is being built is to be a data center. Retrofit means that a building was not originally meant to be a data center, but has been renovated and changed to be one, likely because it’s in a good location with good power and connectivity.

Absorption - This is the word that the data center industry uses to measure demand/growth in a given time period.

Dark Fiber - A dedicated fiber route between one facility and another. Dark fiber is typically used by a single customer as opposed to shared. Since it is a dedicated resource, it will be more expensive than lit fiber.

Lit Fiber - A fiber route that goes directly into a facility is considered “on net” or “lit”. Data centers will typically have multiple fiber providers entering their facility. Lit fiber is a shared resource.

PUE - Stands for Power Usage Effectiveness. This is a metric that data center facilities will use to measure the efficiency of their design. It measures how much of the power that comes into a facility is used by things other than the data center space (e.g. office space).

Compliance Acronyms (ISO, PCI, SOC1, FEDRAMP, etc) - Compliance is a very important aspect of the data center industry. This has grown in importance due to data breaches and other security issues. There is a long list of acronyms that can be categorized under the compliance umbrella, but the gist of what you need to know is that there are dedicated teams in the data center industry that need to know what all of these acronyms stand for and the specifics of them.

Thanks for listening to this podcast, we hope you’ve found this information to be helpful. If you did, it would help us a ton if you would like, share, and subscribe to our content.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our HawkPodcasts and don’t miss out on our latest release of market data for the data center industry.

#datacenter #datacenterterms

[osamaa.h.altameemi]

This channel is a goldmine. Thank you guys.

[millecanis]

Thanks for explaining all the terms in the data center industry.. I am start sharing about data center facility after watching your content

[mdtaylor]

I even liked the banter at the end of the video. Thanks for the education fellas.

[jasonleewkd]

great info that's industry relevant. keep it that way

[jacobhernandez]

im coming in from the construction side, im thinking major cities and the cost to make them whether union or non union contractors. Also I am trying to wrap my head around the business itself, im familiar with reading all kinds of businesses (through annual reports). BIG thanks for putting this together and educating the people.

[sungyelcho]

I am new to this space and want to ask you couple of questions (since these were not dealt on this clip);
1. What’s the difference between powered shell vs turnkey datacenter? Does the latter have servers and equipments ready for tenants?
2. What, s the difference between built to suit and turnkey datacenter?
3. In terms of investment, bts datacenter with long leased credit tenant seems to be attractive. What are some of the downsides investing in these assets?

[assaadassaad]

Thank you for providing this valuable information ... Can you explain to me the Tiering Levels, and what is the difference in obtaining the certificate from Uptime and TIA?

[velo]

how do you guys calculate the watts? is it like 4 hosts (4ue) = 1kW? or is it you get 1kW and can plug in as many hosts as you want as long as you peak below 1kW in total? or am i totally missunderstand your measurements? my thinking behind it is that space also costs money not only how many kW's you use

[muskmars]

It would be helpful to simply state the definition of kW. 1000 watts. MW 1 million watts.

[sjsj]

i am from india,
how can i contact u, for suggestions on installing data centre

[justinmaxwell]

Watts don’t increase in multiples of two like storage capacity or other “binary” components or functions im pretty sure….. a mega watt is simply 1, 000 watts

[jasonleewkd]

so when a tenant pays $100 per kw, what is he exactly paying for? In CRE, the tenant is paying for the right to use the space, then there's expenses that's added on (the +). In the DC industry, is that $100 per kw for electricity, security, cleaning, access to a fiber provider, security etc?

[mihir]

It is not 1024. That's for bits and bytes in storage capacity, expressed as powers of 2.
For energy it is simply 1000. So 1MW = 1000kW not 1024kW

[johnkorduba]

Under Compliance Acronyms, I think you mean "gist" not "jest".

[rebeccapatterson]

So milli (m), kilo (k) and mega(M) watts are all metric terms and they are exactly 1000x not 1024 as stated at 5:14 since watts are a fundametal unit of physics and not anything to do with computer language. So against my better judgement here I am correcting someone on the internet - lol! Will I regret this? <3 thanks for the content though its very interesting. I'm guessing the computer language references megabytes not watts which does vary as stated.

[srthorat]

Guys your videos are good. But try to keep them short not more than 15 - 20 mins. It's a friendly suggestion.

[koolpoll]

Quit the Real estate. I came from Trucking and NEVER brought trucking industry terms into the tech mix

[Ohaodh]

Terms like Expanding the carbon footprint, noise pollution, environmental pollution, ecological damage ….

[kgaugeloselepe]

the guest doesnt understand these term...