What is a Data Center? – Data Center Fundamentals

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00:00 - Intro and banter
11:01 - What is a data center?
12:35 - Defining characteristics of a data center
15:57 - Location & risk mitigation
20:10 - Power consumption & the cloud
27:47 - Connectivity matters
30:59 - Cooling is a concern
33:32 - High availability through redundancy
36:17 - Meeting compliance for multiple industries
39:43 - Top tier security
44:15 - How data center facilities are leased
47:20 - Outro

We dive into the fundamentals of a data center and give a basic overview for anyone who is looking to get into the industry.
On this podcast, David and I are going over the first of eight topics on data center fundamentals. We covered this in a blog series as well as an email course. Today, we answer the question “What is a data center?” and discuss some of the defining characteristics of this real estate class.
A data center is a facility that houses digital infrastructure. That’s the most basic definition that we could build to answer that question. Data centers are unique buildings with unique purposes. As such, people care about several unique aspects that you won’t always find in other commercial real estate assets classes.

Location & Risk Mitigation
A data center’s location is important. Every region comes with its own hazards and data centers are designed to mitigate the risks associated within that region. Most are built to withstand winds of 125+ mph, high scale earthquakes, and are located outside of flood plains.

Power Consumption is the Key Metric
Data centers consume 3% of our world’s electricity, and the best way to understand a data center’s size is to recognize how much power is being utilized at the site. Data centers can be measured in square footage but are more accurately measured in power. Servers consume power at a relatively consistent rate, meaning the overall power needs of a data center is a more accurate indicator of the size of a facility. A single rack of servers in a data center consumes between 2-10 kilowatts (kW) of power, while the entire data center facility can consume between 5-75 megawatts (MW).

Connectivity Matters
A well connected data center includes a high number of fiber providers located at the site, which provides a company flexibility with the fiber providers they want to use for the business operations.

Cooling Is A Concern
Servers produce a significant amount of heat. Temperature control is one of the primary limiting factors on how large a data center can be. In theory, power providers can deliver hundreds of megawatts to a data center, but a data center’s size is limited by the amount of power it can cool. It’s standard for a data center’s cooling capacity to range from 2-10 kW per rack, but new technology is now allowing organizations to achieve higher densities with their footprint.

High Availability Through Redundancy
Having systems in place to handle a negative equipment event is critical for data center success. Data centers typically have redundant transformers, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), backup generators, and cooling systems to keep the facility online at all times.

Meeting Compliance For Multiple Industries
Most industries have strict methods, procedures, and standards around operations. This also applies to how they store their data, meaning a data center must meet that industry’s requirements for a company to use it. Data center compliance focuses on a range of subjects, but often involve the security, redundancy, and operational risk of a data center.

Top Tier Security
Planning to reduce risk also means securing a data center from man-made hazards. Most of these facilities are surrounded by high-grade perimeter fencing with controlled access gates. Inside, 24/7 security personnel, man-trap entrances, biometric scanners, card key access and floor to ceiling steel caging all help to ensure a company’s data center environment is well protected.

More Expensive Than Office Space
Data centers require a high degree of specialization and design, which leads to a higher cost to build and operate a data center. Traditional estimates are 10 times more expensive than traditional office space.

We also talked about…

The increasing amount of capital being invested in the data center industry
David’s ranking of sparkling water flavors
How horrible the watermelon flavor of La Croix is
Vince Lombardi’s famous “This is a football” speech
Crossfit…. of course
How fiber optic cables work and how they differ from copper cables
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 #WhatIsADataCenter

[datacenterHawk]

Click the link below to sign up for our FREE data center fundamentals course. It's an 8 email course that is designed to get you up to speed quickly on the data center industry.

[tammys]

I have an interview coming up and this is really helpful to understand Data Centers. Thank you!

[toodiablo]

Skip to 11:00 and play at 1.25x speed. You will thank me.

[JamesBarnes-xdbj]

You guys are really helpful. In High school, I would have ignorantly grouped you as “nerds”. Now, at the tender age of 46 and entering YOUR WORLD of technology and data center infrastructure, I see you as “Chad’s”!
Keep on keeping on and keep it REAL! You guys are awsome

[jackstern]

I have an interview for a firm that focuses o n data centers and this is SUPER helpful. Thank you so much for this content!

[JamelTejedaShepherd]

This is a great content, I have worked in the industry for the last 18 months, and this helped me to understand a lot of information I was lacking of. Thanks!

[soniyanahata]

Personally I think he could do a better job at being clearer. Instead of repeating the question in 50 different ways. The host really pulled it together, and really the only reason I was able to get some deeper insights. thanks.

[ranjitbondre]

Thank you very much DC Hawk I appreciate your deep explanation

[안우영-qj]

This is a very informative PodCast. Greatly thanks to DC Hawk for sharing good info.

[ClashofTitans]

Thanks for this Podcast (on YouTube). Very informative channel. Keep going brothers

[dagger]

Really nice podcast guys. I'm enjoying your content. I'm an automobile engineer finishing up with my MBA and going to join an IT services company, so this content is super useful!

[umair]

@datacenterHawk....a very helpful discussion and for a DC professional myself, I can correlate many things. This is my first video on your channel and I am already Impressed..Congrats and looking forward to watch and follow your channel

[marcio]

This is brilliant guys. Great job. Thank you for making this available to all of us. I'm sure you increased the use of Data Centers when this video was uploaded

[jacklincon]

A very quick thank you I am a big fan of the channel.

[marianemenman]

Thank for a wonderful introduction to the world of the DCs!
Are you planning to release new videos anytime in the future?

[careywiedenbeck]

What is current that may not be included in this interview considering it was a year ago? Doing interview prep for a data center, entry level opportunity. Big opportunity with an industry leader but this vid is at least a year old

[a.w.]

My blah blah until 17:00 Recommend listening at max 2.0 speed to get through this...

[Patrick-coxu]

Whats the difference between Data Center Technician and Data Center Customer operations III please?

[alfredocarrera]

This is awesome! But I’m Mexican and the topó chico has never been a brand to feel bushy lol
Good job gentlemen

[nothing.c.tu.u]

Sir please i see many centers is following my data so i don't know all so what is that mean