Data center types

There are many types of data processing and service models available. Their classification depends on whether they belong to one or more organizations, how they are connected (and whether they are connected at all) with the topology of other data centers, what technologies they use for computing and storage, and even what level of energy efficiency they have. Data centers are divided into four main types: cisco data centers

Enterprise data centers

These data centers are company-owned, company-owned, and optimized for their end users. Most often they are placed on the corporate campus.

Data centers with managed services

These data centers are operated by a third party (or managed service provider) on behalf of the company. The company does not buy, but leases equipment and infrastructure.

Co-located data centers

In co-located data centers, a company rents space in a data center that is owned by another organization and located outside the company's site. A co-located datacenter houses the infrastructure: building, cooling, bandwidth, security, and more, while the company provides and controls components, including servers, storage, and firewalls.

Cloud data centers

These types of data centers are not located at physical sites. Data and applications are hosted by a cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), IBM Cloud, or another public cloud provider.

Learn more about data centers and the future for them and your network.

Infrastructure Evolution: From Mainframes to Cloud Applications

Computing infrastructure has experienced three major waves of evolution over the past 65 years.

The first wave was characterized by the shift from proprietary mainframes to x86-based servers located on site and administered by its IT department.

The second wave was characterized by widespread virtualization of infrastructure with application support. This allowed for more efficient use of resources and distribution of workloads across the physical infrastructure.

The third wave that we are seeing today is characterized by the transition to cloud computing, hybrid clouds and native cloud applications. The latter concept describes applications that are created and used in the cloud.

Distributed network of applications

The evolutionary process led to the emergence of the so-called distributed computing. This means that data and applications are distributed across disparate systems that are aggregated and integrated using network services and interoperability standards and ultimately function as a single environment. For this reason, the term "data center" is now used to refer to the department in an organization that is responsible for these systems, regardless of where they are located.

Organizations have several options: they can build and maintain their own  hybrid cloud data centers , rent space to host their facilities, leverage shared computing and storage resources, or use services that run on the public cloud. Thus, applications are no longer deployed to one location today. They run on multiple public and private clouds, hosted third-party sites, and traditional environments. In the era of multicloud, data centers have grown and become more sophisticated and equipped with everything you need to get the most out of your user experience.