Malaysia is paving the way for the growth of the digital economy, with Tesla and Amazon recently investing in data centres in the country. As a result, Malaysia is quickly becoming a hub for data centre investment in the region.
It's not just Malaysia that's experiencing growth in the data centre industry. One article from GlobeNewsWire showed that the Asia-Pacific Data Centre Market will grow at a CAGR of 12% from 2023 to 2028, reaching US$ 53.58 billion.
A data centre is a location where an organisation's common IT operations and equipment are gathered to store, process and distribute data and applications. Data centres are vital to daily tasks because they house an organisation's most important and private assets. So data centre safety and reliability become any organisation's top goals.
In Malaysia, the growth of the data centre industry has been remarkable, with the country being the best location for data centre investment due to its strategic location, supportive government policies, and skilled workforce.
With so much excitement surrounding these investments, many people are eager to learn about data centres, including what they are, how they work, and why they are important.
What is a Data Centre?
A data centre is a physical facility where organisations centralise their IT operations and equipment, one article from IBM explained.
It is the heart of any organisation's digital infrastructure and stores, manages, and disseminates data. Data centres house a wide range of critical systems, including servers, networking equipment, storage devices, and managing data linked with those applications and services.
Why is a Data Centre important?
A data centre is important because everyone needs data. Everyone has likely used the services offered by data centres at some time.
Cloud data centres are quickly replacing conventional data centres as the storage method of choice for medium and large businesses. This is because they are significantly more private than storing data on conventional hardware devices.
The improved security protection provided by cloud data centres includes firewalls and backup components in case of a security breach.
How do Data Centres work?
Data centres work by providing a secure and controlled environment for organisations to store, process, and manage their data. In a nutshell, data centres are similar to large warehouses that store and manage data.
Data centres are facilities that house either physical or virtual servers, which are interconnected through networking and communication devices to store, transmit, and provide digital access to information, both internally and externally.
Like a personal computer but with more capacity, each server has a processor, storage, and memory. Data centres use software to arrange the servers and distribute the load.
Types of Data Centres
There are some types of data centres, and each serves a different purpose. The primary types of data centres include:
1. Enterprise Data Centres
These are typically used by large corporations or organisations to manage their IT infrastructure. They are usually located on-premises and are designed to meet the specific needs of the organisation. Enterprise data centres are highly customised and are typically not available for use by other companies.
2. Managed Services Data Centres
It allows a client company to use servers, storage, and networking hardware provided by the data centre provider. The provider handles administrative tasks, monitoring, and management on the client's behalf.
3. Colocation Data Centres
These data centres allow multiple organisations to share a physical space and infrastructure while maintaining IT equipment and operations. Most colocation companies now provide management and monitoring services to customers who seek them.
4. Cloud Data Centres
These data centres are operated by cloud service providers who offer IT infrastructure and services to businesses through the cloud. The largest cloud data centres, or hyper-scale data centres, are frequently operated by popular cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Data Centre Architecture
Data centre architecture refers to the design and layout of a data centre's physical infrastructure. A well-designed data centre architecture is critical to ensuring the high availability, reliability, and scalability of IT systems.
The architecture of a data centre is critical to its performance and efficiency. Here are some key elements of data centre architecture:
- Physical Infrastructure: This includes the building, power supply, cooling system, and security features.
- Network Infrastructure: This includes the cabling, routers, switches, and other network equipment that connect the data centre to the internet and other networks.
- Storage Infrastructure: This includes the servers, storage devices, and backup systems that store and manage the data within the data centre.
Even on-premises data centres have shifted from the traditional IT infrastructure, where each application or workload operated on dedicated hardware, to cloud architecture.
In modern data centres, virtualization allows physical hardware resources such as CPUs, storage, and networking to be pooled into a capacity that can be allocated to multiple applications and workloads as needed, without being limited by their physical boundaries.
Software-defined infrastructure (SDI), which can be provisioned, configured, operated, maintained, and "spun down" programmatically without requiring human assistance, is another benefit of virtualization.
Data Centre Components
Let's break it down a little further. Here are some of the key components that make up a data centre infrastructure:
1. Servers
These are the computers that store and process data. They come in many different sizes and configurations, from small rack-mounted servers to massive blade servers.
2. Storage systems
These are the devices that store data, such as hard drives and solid-state drives. They are connected to the servers and provide a place for data to be saved and retrieved as needed.
3. Networking equipment
This includes routers, switches, and other devices that connect the servers and storage systems, allowing them to communicate with each other and with the outside world.
4. Power and cooling systems
Data centres generate a lot of heat, so it's important to have systems in place to keep the equipment cool. This includes air conditioning units, fans, and other cooling systems. In addition, data centres require a lot of power to run, so they typically have backup generators in case of power outages.
Final Thoughts
Data centres are the backbone of the modern digital economy, serving as the central hub for storing, processing, and distributing data. This complete guide to data centres has provided an overview of the definition, why it is important, and various components, types, and considerations that are essential for building and operating a data centre.
As the demand for data continues to grow exponentially, data centre operators must constantly adapt and innovate to meet the evolving needs of their customers and remain competitive in the marketplace.
