How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek

Inside a High-Performance Data Center: Compute, Storage and Networking

From servers to networking, data centers house much of the infrastructure that runs the modern world

Mike Glenn
Inside a High-Performance Data Center: Compute, Storage and Networking

Data centers may appear unassuming from the outside, but inside, they hold the infrastructure that makes our digital world work. As the volume of data increases, it’s becoming one of the most valuable resources in the modern world. More storage and processing power are needed, so the data center industry is growing. AI and edge computing are also driving a need for more data centers around the world.

High-performance data centers like Equinix IBX® data centers house compute, storage and networking equipment, as well as power and cooling systems. They also serve as a neutral meeting place for the world’s most prominent enterprises, clouds, network service providers and SaaS companies. These specialized facilities help organizations connect to one another and address their strategic priorities for AI, sustainability, multicloud adoption, geographic expansion and digital transformation.

But to the outside world, data centers can be a mystery. Have you ever wondered what a data center looks like inside? In this two-part blog series, we’ll walk you through the basic elements so you can see the infrastructure that keeps our technologies working. First, we’ll cover the core IT infrastructure that lives there—servers, storage and networking.

Welcome to the data center

From the outside, a data center might look like any other large building. Whether located in a major urban center or an industrial park, they represent a wide range of designs and architectural styles. Inside, you might find the unique branding of the data center provider.

A data center’s entrance could include a lobby or common area, or it may go directly to a security checkpoint.

Figure 1: Common area in our Amsterdam IBX data center

Security features are a fundamental part of any data center since protecting customer equipment and data is crucial. At Equinix, visitors have to pass through five layers of physical security before they can access their own equipment.

Data centers also often have offices where customers can work while onsite and conference rooms they can reserve to meet with data center staff, business partners, service providers and so on. When customers aren’t working on the data center floor, they can use these quieter conference rooms to work and connect to Wi-Fi. (The main data center floor can be quite noisy thanks to all the equipment inside.)

Data centers also often have offices where customers can work while onsite and conference rooms they can reserve to meet with data center staff, business partners, service providers and so on. When customers aren’t working on the data center floor, they can use these quieter conference rooms to work and connect to Wi-Fi. (The main data center floor can be quite noisy thanks to all the equipment inside.)

Figure 2: Conference room

Core data center infrastructure: Compute and storage servers

On the colocation floor, you’ll find servers and other IT equipment housed in secure environments, as well as power and cable trays. Many data centers use low lighting like the blue light shown in figure 3 to help with energy efficiency. Brighter lights come on as people enter a given space.

The floor can be either a concrete slab or a raised floor. With a concrete slab, wiring and cooling infrastructure is stored up above, whereas with a raised floor, wiring and networking can run both underneath and above the floor.

Figure 3: Data center floor

The main data center floor is full of servers and storage equipment organized in racks, cabinets and cages. Compute infrastructure is the heart of itthese are the high-performance computers that process large workloads.

Figure 4: Rack of servers

Storage systems like the one shown in figure 5—which contains many hard driveshold large quantities of data and make it accessible to the rest of a customer’s infrastructure.

Figure 5: Storage close-up

Some customers in a data center use secure shared spaces, while others need private space. Secure private cages have their own entry point and built-in security features. Ventilated cabinet doors on the cages ensure air circulation to keep equipment at the right operating temperature.

Figure 6: Private cages

Networking infrastructure

Networking equipment ensures fast connectivity between participants in a data center. This is how data centers facilitate seamless communication between customer infrastructure and network services, clouds, SaaS providers, business partners and other members of an ecosystem.

Network switches connect to routers, which then create a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) for communication. Ethernet and fiber optic cables connect to other devices in the data center—such as customer equipment, security, power distribution units (PDUs), and a customer’s partners and service providers.

Figure 7: Network switches and cables connected to routers

An overhead cabling system is used to provide interconnection between tenants in the data center. Cable trays provide tamper-proof cable management.

In figure 8, the yellow portion is a fiber optic cable tray. Fiber cabling has become predominant in data centers today. Above the fiber tray is a ladder rack that houses copper cabling. Then, above that is a rack that carries power cables from the remote power panels (RPPs) on the left side of the cages to each cabinet or rack. These RPPs connect to PDUs.

Figure 8: Cabling trays

Figure 9: Closeup of fiber optic cabling tray

Hopefully this quick photo tour of some of the key elements of a data center gives you a better sense of what kind of infrastructure is underneath the digital technologies that businesses and consumers rely on. Keep in mind: There are several types of data centers out there, and not all of them will have the exact elements shown here.

But none of this is possible without a lot of power and cooling innovations that supply energy and keep equipment operating at efficient temperatures. So, stay tuned for my next blog post to get a deeper dive into the power and cooling components—as well as some of the creative ways we can use a data center roof.

Meanwhile, to learn more about specific Equinix facilities, review our data center locations. Or take a virtual tour of a data center in London.

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Mike Glenn Lead IBX Customer Operations Technician
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