The term data center covers the building or premises in which the central Server a company, organization or university. For security reasons, these units are well protected and usually only accessible to a small group of people with special permission. Below you will find the most important details about the structure and tasks of a data center.
Server (computer centre): the brain of a company
A computer center (DC) is designed to process and manage large amounts of data. The large financial and technology groups usually have their own centers and responsible IT departments. Smaller companies or even private individuals have the option of outsourcing these services. They rent a computer centre and thus acquire server capacities for their own needs. The connection between the data center and the customer is established via secure data lines.
The advantage of a computer center is that it provides a powerful infrastructure, which also includes the operation of parallel systems, to be prepared for failures. The power supply is also equipped with two independent power supply units so that operations can continue in the event of a possible failure. To minimize the risk of failure, generators for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) are usually installed. A powerful air conditioning system is also absolutely essential in a computer centre to prevent the high-performance computers from overheating.
Organization of the RZ
- Systems Engineering
This is where the hardware of the computer center is maintained. The execution of installations and cabling is carried out by specialized system technicians. In the event of a fault, they also carry out prompt analyses and certain repairs.
- System administration
From this point configurations are carried out so that the computer center can recognize and operate new devices during operation. Depending on the size of the computer center, software installation and administration may also be located here. New versions of auxiliary programs and releases are introduced into production, which have previously been tested and approved in detail by the company. For this purpose many companies maintain their own test environments.
- Operating
This part includes the operation and monitoring of the actual computer system in the computer center by the operators. Due to the technical progress of operating systems, their profession has changed significantly. Many of the original tasks have become obsolete due to the automation of processes. Nevertheless, humans still have to ensure important functions in interaction with the machine, especially in case of system irregularities or failures (exceptions).
Security
As you can see, security in a computer center is a top priority, for understandable reasons, if you consider the expensive technology installed there. In addition to the restrictive access rules, great importance is attached to fire protection in particular. This begins with the structural measures, by separating rooms in a sensible way or by using false floors, which allow additional cooling of the machines from below. Highly sensitive smoke detection systems are used to detect a possible fire at an early stage. Employees in a computer centre are also actively trained in the use of suitable fire extinguishers so that they can react quickly in the event of minor incidents. If necessary, automatic extinguishing systems are also put into operation, which fight the fire by emitting special extinguishing gases.
In case a computer center would fail completely in a catastrophe, many operators have a backup computer center available, which is located in another location. The backup data center is identically structured to enable a complete operation. A lot is invested in the security of a data center, which makes sense when you consider that a financial group, for example, would have to shut down completely if it were to fail for several days. This is because the exclusion of trade and transactions would quickly lead to a collapse.
Data security
Thus, customer and transaction data, the value of which is almost Loss can lead to immense loss of prestige and reputational damage. You may recall an example from the banking industry where data theft resulted in the loss of customer data, which led to major upheavals when it was sold to the tax authorities and the subsequent demands that this triggered. It is clear that no company can and will allow that with their Data is traded. The confidentiality and integrity of customer and transaction data are essential components of data protection. Accordingly, a lot of money is spent in this area to protect against unauthorized access by employees or hackers by means of encryption techniques and firewalls.
