A data center is a network of computing and storage resources that allow the provision of software applications and shared data. When it comes to enterprise IT, every data center tends to support enterprise applications. These range from simple messaging and file sharing to Big Data, communications and collaboration services, to customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
How a data center works
The main components of a data center are:
- Network infrastructure, which connects servers (including virtualized servers), data center services, storage and external connections to the sites where end users are located
- The storage infrastructure, which provides the storage bays for the “fuel” of the data center: the data
- Computing resources: the servers that provide processing, memory, local storage and network connections for data center engines, like applications
- Datacenter solutions can simply help you protect the performance as well as the integrity of some major components of your data center. This layer can include network security, including firewall and intrusion protection, to preserve the “fuel” and “engines” of the data center
- The provision of applications, whose resilience and availability are ensured by an automatic failover system, and whose performance is preserved by load balancing
All these elements are brought together in one place, organized and interconnected by racks and physical cables.
The site distributes the power itself and houses subsystems such as electrical switching, inverters (UPS) and backup generators. It also has adequate ventilation, site environmental control systems, and a fire protection device. It offers great physical security, like access control and others.
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Evolution of infrastructure: from central systems to cloud applications
The IT infrastructure has experienced three major waves of evolution over the past 65 years:
- The first resulted in the transition from proprietary central units to site-based x86 servers managed by internal IT teams.
- The second wave resulted in the generalization of the virtualization of the infrastructure supporting the applications. This phase helped optimize the use of resources and strengthen the mobility of workloads between physical infrastructure pools.
- The third wave is the one we are experiencing and which is marked by the growing adoption of cloud, hybrid cloud and native cloud infrastructures (applications born in the cloud).
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Distributed application network
This development has made it possible to set up distributed IT. It involves distributing data and applications across disparate, connected and integrated systems using network services and interoperability standards so that they operate as a single environment. This is why the expression “data center” is now used to designate the department responsible for these systems, wherever they are located.
Businesses can choose to build and maintain their own hybrid cloud data centers in operational conditions, rent space from UK colocation establishments, consume shared storage and compute services, or use services based on a public cloud. The effect of this approach is that, nowadays, applications no longer reside in one place. They operate in several public and private clouds, via managed service offerings and in classic environments. In the era of “multi-cloud”, the data center has become large and complex and aims to provide an optimal user experience.
Your data is valuable, secure it with our solutions
More and more companies are facing the consequences of losing their data. To be more precise, did you know that 80% of affected businesses are forced to close following an episode of data loss? For those who are doing less well, this type of incident is generally followed by considerable difficulties in getting the business back on its feet.
However, means and solutions exist to protect your data and make your activities sustainable. At The Email Shop, we are aware of what a loss or a flaw in your data can mean for your business and we have designed solutions in our UK colocation to make your business reliable.
If you are concerned about your data and want to protect yourself from an unfortunate loss, here are the elements of vigilance to pay attention to:
THE SAVINGS
Are you sure you have good backups and can recover data from these backups?
In most cases, customers have backups, but these are provided by an employee whose specialty is not: the secretary, the accountant, a clerk. There is no doubt that these are good people, but certainly not the most specialized to ensure good backups and validate their integrity!
Then comes another question: Do you outsource your backups?
In the event of fires or theft do you have a copy of your data outside your company, which will allow you to recover and then use your data?
You will understand how unsaved data could have led some companies to bankruptcy.
At The Email Shop, we offer solutions to ensure the proper execution of your backups and the availability of your data in the event of a problem. Whether through our backup validation services (validation of proper execution and restoration tests) or via our external backup plans, we maximize your chances of recovering your data.
THE SECURITY OF YOUR SYSTEMS
Is your computer system secure?
The basis of computer security is the establishment of security systems. This involves the installation of security software, namely antivirus, antispam and awareness of your employees. Before you even invest in high-end systems, have you taken the trouble to install the basics of security?
A large majority of viruses are spread due to a wrong action by a user. Therefore, the first recommendation that we make to our customers is to make their employees aware of this risk. We teach them to detect IT risks which, in 90% of cases, are located at the level of email exchanges. By making employees aware of the schemes used by hackers to infect systems, the danger is eliminated in 75% of cases.
Subsequently, the use of advanced tools can identify problem equipment and prevent damage’s WHAT WE’RE PLACING FOR Youth implementation of secure, outsourced and verified backups
In the event of a security breach, what is your contingency plan?
A contingency plan is the succession plan for your tools, which gives you the ability to continue working if your systems fail. The purpose of the contingency plan? Allow you to plan for the recovery of your systems in the event of a breakdown such as a fire, equipment failure or a virus that would paralyze your systems.
It is important to have a contingency plan, written and established in stages, to quickly identify your infrastructures. This includes a step-by-step process for getting back on track.
What can we do for you? We are used to creating contingency plans for our clients. We know how to establish them according to customer needs, particularly taking into account the need for rapid recovery as well as the age of the data, what we commonly call RPO and RTO.
Does that seem complicated to you? Do you think these are too many points to consider? Perhaps you have neither the time nor the will to take care of it yourself while you focus on developing your business?
This is correct and, precisely, we have THE solution for you: host your data in our secure data centers, where we provide all of the risk protection solutions and the succession plan for you.
So that you are not caught off guard or taking any risks, our service allows you to perform safely.
