Published On: Thu, Nov 13th, 2014

What is a Data Centre and How Are They Run?

The technology industry is filled with information and phrases that the majority of people don’t understand – even those working in it. With so many new systems being developed all the time it seems as though there are new careers being developed just as quickly and when people start to talk about these brand new industries, you have to start wondering whether or not it’s worth investing in what they have to offer.

In the past few years, with the ever-increasing amount of data being shared around the world and across the web, data centres have become hugely important to large and small agencies who deal with various amounts of data and information that needs to be securely stored to prevent potentially bankrupting issues from occurring.

A data centre, essentially, is a location where all of the information is stored with a series of systems looking after it. Server support from Databax who are based in the UK, utilises a data centre to help customers with their IT requirements, helping them to not only stay online, but to keep everything secure at the same time – something that troubles a lot of the larger businesses.

Data Centre

On the largest of all scales is the search engine giant, Google. With so many different kinds of data to look after, there is no way that Google could keep all of that information on systems hosted at their own headquarters because if one part of that system failed then pretty much the whole Internet would come to a stop, such is Google’s influence and impact on the web! Instead, they use a number of different data centres spread around the world, although predominantly the United States and Europe where they have the most impact, and they require a lot of space – the Iowa facility alone is a staggering 115,000 square feet in size.

The speed of these data centres is just as staggering, with it estimated to send information between each other at around 200,000 times the speed of your normal Internet connection!

When a server goes down within a company it can be disastrous, especially if nobody on-site knows how to get things back on track. That is exactly why a lot of companies are now looking to outsource all of their information to data centres and to invest in server support, meaning that there are businesses on-hand who are paid to monitor your systems 24/7 so that when chaos happens for a competitor, you can capitalise on the open market while they’re all down.