What is a Data Center? - Data Center Fundamentals

Interested in Hyperscale data centers? Sign up for our free hyperscale data center course:
lp.datacenterhawk.com/hypersc...
Or get a quick 15 minute demo of our platform:
lp.datacenterhawk.com/request...
-----
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. lp.datacenterhawk.com/data-center-fundamentals-course?

[@ranjitbondre9813]

I didn't get an email.

[@datacenterHawk]

@@ranjitbondre9813 Sorry about that Ranjit! We're looking into this and will send you the email ASAP. Thanks for letting us know!

[@tammys7596]

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

[@samuelamara9996]

Hey Tammy how did the interview. I have one coming up

[@tammys7596]

@@samuelamara9996 it went so well I had 2 offers on the same day

[@jackstern8738]

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!

[@datacenterHawk]

We're glad we could be helpful! We also have a free 7 day email course called data center fundamentals. It will really help you get caught up on the basics of data centers. If you're interested, you can sign up for it here: lp.datacenterhawk.com/data-center-fundamentals-course

[@michaeladdisu8043]

i have a written exam on data centers this weekend , what kinda questions were you asked?

[@ClashofTitans001]

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

[@ranjitbondre9813]

Thank you very much DC Hawk I appreciate your deep explanation

[@user-wt4mn3yh8x]

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

[@datacenterHawk]

Glad you enjoyed it! Please consider subscribing and sharing so we can continue to grow and help others!

[@marcio1745]

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

[@datacenterHawk]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@umair181986]

@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

[@paul-mariegnaba5414]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[@user-jz1ud7kw4f]

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!

[@datacenterHawk]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Z901Z]

Awesome channel! Absolute gold :)

[@dagger732]

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!

[@datacenterHawk]

Great! We're glad you found it helpful. Please consider subscribing to be notified when we publish more helpful data center content!

[@dagger732]

@@datacenterHawk Subscribed! :) I'm going to go through your videos over the next weeks

[@adriananderson3979]

So So glad I found this!

[@datacenterHawk]

We're glad you found it too!

[@jacklincon6406]

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

[@Kaisan8890]

Thank you!

[@toodiablo]

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

[@xTecSec]

Thank you :)

[@Patrick-co5xu]

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

[@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

[@marianemenman3851]

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

[@datacenterHawk]

Thanks for the comment! We're working on additional content now! Be sure you're subscribed so you'll be notified when it's live.

[@datacenterHawk]

We also stream a live podcast every quarter on LinkedIn. Here is the latest one you can watch: www.linkedin.com/events/7051201056399114241/comments/ Also, here is the one for 2Q that you can go ahead and register for: www.linkedin.com/events/7059567040029741056/comments/

[@Indianagirl1963]

How much noise does a data center generate?

[@careywiedenbeck8867]

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

[@datacenterHawk]

Hey Carey, thanks for the interest. Even though this video might be a little older, we created this to be evergreen content. So pretty much all of the content and topics talked about here, still hold true today. That being said, a big trend of the data center industry right now is large scale growth. Cloud service providers are building and leasing massive amounts of space and power in the industry all over the world. Check out our videos on Hyperscale data centers to hear more about that. We also produced a video earlier this year about our 2022 data center predictions. That has some great discussion on some of big trends in the industry as well. Hope that helps!

[@kabam699]

hi. i have received a fair amount of funding to setup a program of digital servers. I would like to get in touch with the gentleman being interviewed. how do i get in touch with you both?

[@datacenterHawk]

Hi Dominik! You can email us at [e-mail] and let us know how we can be of help to you. Thanks!

[@WishInvrborn]

Dude sounds like my man Stugotz...!!! 😊😊😊😊

[@yogeshdhondibaaher4808]

I have 12 years experience, but today hard to get the job, can you guide

[@zubairkaisar1293]

starts at 12:11

[@datacenterHawk]

Thanks for the help! We've gone ahead and added chapters to this video so people can skip to the info that they're interested in watching. We hope you find this helpful!

[@Kyle_Warweave]

A data center is the reason the Library of Alexandria was “burnt down.”

[@prasam1414]

get to the point guys.. no time for lemon drinks and watermelons

[@datacenterHawk]

Thanks for the feedback! We've added chapters to this video so you can skip out on the banner and get straight to the content.

[@russellruby1293]

is this a booze & sports channel or what? i cant get through the first 10 minutes on any of these videos!

[@datacenterHawk]

Thanks for the feedback! We’ll keep this in mind and we’ve already talked about adjustments we could make as a team. Thanks for listening and letting us know how we can improve.

[@sasherwani]

Wow I f**ing listened to 10m of crap discussion about waters before you guys got into the topic of discussion

[@datacenterHawk]

We did include chapters for our viewers to get right into the content and skip the friendly banter at the beginning. Like you said, the 2nd chapter titled "What is a data center?" starts right at the 11 minute mark of the video. We try to include chapters on our videos that need them. Hope that helps for some of our other videos you watch.

[@jackieo7113]

Almost 5 minutes has elapsed and these guys still haven't gotten into the nitty gritty of data centers - yakking about sparking water preferences - not why I clicked on the video!

[@nothing.c.tu.u]

And I don't understand i need to understand that's fucking reason center who ordered

[@theussoul]

Total waste of time. Deleting