I’m sure you have heard many times to ignore data centers that have high downtime. There is a very good reason behind it. Before we get into that, we will talk a bit about what data centers are and what they are used for. Once we make that part clear, we will talk about why data centers with high downtime are only meant to be ignored.

Data centers, in the simplest definition, are physical facilities that organizations use to house and protect their

• Critical data
• Software
• Applications.

With the increasing rate of companies relying on cloud computing and technology, more and more data centers are coming to the face of the earth.

Many confuse the difference between servers and data centers. Don’t worry, we’re here to fix that too!

Basically, the difference between the two is that

• The first (servers) run on a single node and works with internalized data stores
• The latter works with externalized data stores and runs on multiple nodes.

Easy right?

So now that we understand what a data center is, why do power outages matter? What are the risks that can result in power loss? And how to prevent such risks?

Data centers should give extreme importance to preventing power outages. They can cause harm to the data center as a whole, resulting in:

• Loss of crucial data
• Decreasing productivity
• Corrupting not only the files and folders stored but also the equipment used.

So, what can data center operators do in case of power outages? Simple, data center power infrastructure should have more than one support – the regular one that simply uses the main power grid and the emergency one which uses generators during emergencies. Meaning that the second the main power stops providing electricity, all the equipment starts relying on the emergency power supply.

Data centers, especially the ones that are found in third-world countries, experience data outages a few times per month. Therefore, they should really consider equipping the center with generators and UPS. (Keeping in mind that a UPS is a short-term backup power.)

Now that you know how important power support is in data centers, you can keep in mind to include backup systems in case you plan to open and design your own data center. You never know, with all the blogs Coloco is giving you, there is nothing we can’t learn about data centers!