Data Center Handbook, 2nd Edition

4HOSTING OR COLOCATION DATA CENTERS

Chris Crosby and Chris Curtis

Compass Datacenters, Dallas, Texas, United States of America

4.1 INTRODUCTION

“Every day Google answers more than one billion questions from people around the globe in 181 countries and 146 languages.”¹ Google does not share their search volume data. But a 2019 report estimated 70,000 search queries every second that is 5.8 billion search per day. The vast majority of this information is not only transmitted but also stored for repeated access, which means that organizations must continually expand the number of servers and storage devices to process this increasing volume of information. All of those servers and storage devices need a data center to call home, and every organization needs to have a data center strategy that will meet their computing needs both now and in the future. Not all data centers are the same, though, and taking the wrong approach can be disastrous both technically and financially. Organizations must therefore choose wisely, and this chapter provides valuable information to help organizations make an informed choice and avoid the most common mistakes.

Historically, the vast majority of corporate computing was performed within data center space that was built, owned, and operated by the organization itself. In some cases, it was merely a back room in the headquarters that was full of servers and patch panels. In other cases, it was a stand‐alone, purpose‐built data center facility that ...