Who uses data centers?
Over the last twenty years, technology and the way we use it has grown and changed exponentially. The world has gone from analogue television to digital to streaming, from simple mobile phones to smartphones, and the internet is involved in every aspect of our lives. You may not realise it but data centers are at the core of our digital lives, both at home and in the workplace. So what are data centers, why do we need them, and who uses them?
In short, almost everyone uses data centers. If you have ever streamed a movie, used instant messaging, shopped online, played an online video game or stored files in the cloud you have used a data center. Data centers are specialised facilities that house high-end computing systems capable of processing vast amounts of data. Data is processed in the data center and then sent back to the user at rapid speeds, allowing for instant data access and enabling services such as streaming services to function.
Many businesses also utilise data centers in their day to day runnings. Data centers are used by retailers, educational bodies, telecommunications companies, government offices and much more. Depending on the size and scale of the business or organisation and their needs, they may have their own dedicated data center on the premises, which was more common in the past. However, many businesses and organisations now opt to outsource to an off-premises data center accessed via the cloud as technology has made this model more efficient. Businesses may own a dedicated off-site data center or they might share a large data center used by many businesses. With increasing demand, many data centers are housed miles away from the businesses they serve, sometimes on the opposite side of the globe. This can cause lag and latency issues which can be very detrimental in situations where instant data sharing and processing is vital. Larger organisations may have multiple data centers in many countries to ensure that users around the world can have a smooth data sharing experience, but this is not always the case. However, latency issues can be remedied with the recent innovation of micro data centers; small and easy to manage data centers that can process some data at the source and act as a bridge between the user and the cloud. This can keep data running quickly and smoothly, and aren’t as expensive or high maintenance as full size on-site data centers.
USystems aims to be at the forefront of modern data center solutions, offering data center products and cooling solutions for data centers of all sizes. Technology is a constantly evolving landscape and the amount of data we generate and process is increasing daily. Innovations such as live streaming and 5G mean that data center solutions have to evolve to keep up and to keep data centers functioning as they should. Our solutions are ready to meet 5G data center cooling demands and more, ensuring that data centers are kept future proof, and we prioritise energy efficiency to ensure environmental impact is kept at a minimum.
