Not only is the definition of the traditional data centre changing, but distinct types of data centre facilities are becoming more prevalent.
By definition, a data centre is a physical structure housing networked computers that work together to process, store, and share data. Most major technology companies rely on data centres as a vital component that delivers their online services. It is also where businesses and third-party providers house their IT infrastructure, and all the physical and virtual systems, networks, applications, space, power, cooling, racks, cabinets, and cabling that make a data centre operational.
As we’ll explore in this blog, the availability of diverse types of data centres expands the market’s definition of where its IT infrastructure lives.
Building your IT infrastructure in an interconnected, safe, and sustainable data centre provides access to valuable digital services and business ecosystems.
Before we get into defining the various data centres, let’s explore the fundamentals that must be considered when planning, maintaining, and securing a data centre to ensure reduced risk of downtime and data breaches.
What should you look for in a data centre?
Resilience – the level of resilience varies widely based on the quality of a data centre. In high-tier data centres such as Teraco, multiple levels of power resilience and backup servers are built into the infrastructure.
Efficiency – the amount of electricity used at a large data centre can rival that of a small town. Data centres attempt to reduce costs by optimising cooling processes, using energy-efficient hardware, and integrating renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into the mix whenever possible.
Security – physical security, access control, electronic surveillance, and on-site security personnel reduce the risk associated with bad actors attempting to gain physical access to a facility.
Environmental controls – it is necessary to maintain the right environmental conditions to ensure the proper functioning of electronic hardware. Maintaining the temperature and humidity within acceptable parameters requires a delicate balance between cooling, humidity control, and airflow regulation.
Maintenance and monitoring – on-site or on-call systems engineers proactively monitor any hardware failures, with response teams helping to ensure server uptime and maintain the quality of service provided.
Bandwidth – sufficient bandwidth is required to manage all the requisite network traffic. Considerations are a central component with external network connections and internal data centre topology designed around sufficient network capacity, which includes redundant fibre lines.
What are the different types of data centres?
Data centres have evolved as digital technology has progressed, leading to a transformation in the conventional understanding of a data centre. Here are five examples illustrating this changing landscape:
1. Colocation
Colocation data centres, managed by independent providers like Teraco, are purpose-built to accommodate the IT infrastructure of various private or public organisations within a single facility. Through colocation data centres, IT entities can rent space, power, and cooling and access data centre management and support services.
Furthermore, enterprises may opt for interconnection services to link with business partners and digital infrastructure services (such as CPU, storage, and networks), thereby reducing the capital expenditure of owning and managing their data centres.
Colocating servers and networking operations within Teraco’s data centre environments provide our clients with the widest connectivity choice, the highest guaranteed uptime, stringent security, and optimal operating conditions.
At Teraco, all cabinet locations are engineered with direct access to a cable distribution system that supports interconnection at any speed. Built to the highest specifications according to global best practices, data centre colocation services at Teraco are ideal for businesses looking to safeguard their data and establish solid business continuity plans.
Meeting AI’s rigorous demands for processing vast amounts of data with extreme hardware and energy requirements requires specialised data centre design considerations, IT infrastructure, network, security, and uptime. This trend coincides with colocation providers prioritising implementing more sustainable power and cooling.
Increasingly, traditional IT organisations and newer cloud-native companies consider colocation data centres with digital services as their new on-premises facilities to operate and scale their IT operations efficiently. This allows companies to focus on meeting changing client requirements and growing their businesses rather than running and managing their data centres.
2. On-premise
Private or public organisations typically own on-premise data centres to accommodate their IT infrastructure. Due to the costs associated with owning and managing private data centres, the rise of cloud computing is prompting the consolidation and closure of an increasing number of on-premise data centres.
By the end of 2024, more than half of IT professionals have reported planning to close all their on-premises data centres. About one-third of enterprises plan to eliminate their facilities. This trend may result in organisations redeploying to the cloud or colocation data centres.
3. Hyperscale
Hyperscale data centres, commonly owned and managed by cloud or as-a-service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Meta and Microsoft, have gained significant importance. These high-capacity data centres are pivotal as they provide pay-as-you-go virtualised services encompassing compute, storage, security, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics for enterprise clients.
Hyperscalers remain the primary consumers in the data centre market, witnessing exponential growth in capacity demand as companies increasingly transition towards hybrid cloud environments.
4. Edge
Edge data centres are owned and managed by private or public IT organisations or may be situated within a colocation provider’s premises. They are used to bring IT infrastructure closer to employees, clients, and partners. Edge data centres are increasingly gaining traction among enterprises and service providers.
5. Core
Core data centres are owned and operated by private or public IT organisations or may be situated within a colocation provider’s facility. They serve as pivotal hubs where businesses exchange data among networks, clouds, XaaS (Anything as a Service) providers, and enterprise digital infrastructure.
Software-defined technologies transforming data centres
Alongside diverse data centre models, advanced digital technologies are transforming the orchestration of data centre services, spanning computing, storage, networking, and infrastructure management.
Most essential functions within data centres are automated through software-defined AI and machine learning systems to enhance efficiency and lower expenses. Software-defined data centres are not only more cost-effective and efficient but also proactive. With AI and machine learning bolstering IT infrastructure, network, security, and power monitoring systems, these data centres can promptly address real-time issues, preventing costly problems or failures before they occur.
Interconnection integrates different models of data centre infrastructure
At Teraco, our enterprise and service provider clients use colocation and private interconnection to integrate their IT infrastructures deployed within Platform Teraco seamlessly. Additionally, Teraco data centres are expanding to cater to the escalating requirements of hyperscale clients seeking high-speed, low-latency interconnection to enterprise digital infrastructure.
Through interconnection across our data centre and digital infrastructure platform, we facilitate the integration of our clients’ traditional on-premises IT with their digital core, edge, and ecosystem infrastructures on Platform Teraco, thereby enhancing their digital capabilities.
Modern data centres, exemplified by those designed, constructed, and operated by Teraco, offer dependable power and cooling and grant enterprises unparalleled access to diverse telecom ecosystems, colocation services, and all the regional cloud on-ramps.
Putting sustainability within reach
Most enterprise data centres often fall short of meeting stringent sustainability benchmarks. This is where businesses can leverage our dedication to fostering a more sustainable digital environment. At Teraco, we meticulously design, construct, and manage our data centres, focusing on energy efficiency and a commitment to achieving our long-term objective of using 100% clean and renewable energy sources.
At Teraco, we have committed to powering our data centre colocation facilities with 50% renewable energy by 2027 and 100% by 2035. By the end of 2023, we also maximised our combined rooftop solar footprint across all facilities to 6MW, and 10MW once all our new builds are operational in 2024 and 2025.
Furthermore, Teraco aims to mitigate more than 14 000 tonnes of CO2 by the end of 2026 and has committed to diverting zero waste to landfills by 2028.
Alongside the impact made through sustainable building and renewable energy sourcing initiatives, Teraco raised an R1.5 billion green loan in 2022 to apply to our 200MW utility-scale solar programme. Companies can drive their business advantage by leveraging Teraco’s data centre sustainability.
One certainty remains: data centre models, technologies, and methodologies will continuously advance. At Teraco, we are committed to innovating our digital infrastructure platform to ensure that our clients benefit from data centre facilities that are the epitome of reliability, scalability, security, and sustainability.
