Our digital society can’t run without the strength and power of physical infrastructure. An increase in data reinforces the need for digital infrastructure. In 2012, we crossed into the zettabyte era, and that is, the data in our digital ecosystem, for the first time, exceeded a zettabyte. That number continues to increase today, with estimates of around 175 zettabytes by 2025.
The major balance that we’ve been discussing so far revolves around deploying new technology solutions, like the cloud, and where digital modernization impacts physical infrastructure. Too often, we look at modernization efforts as server upgrades and new pieces of software.
However, the digital evolution is happening on the data center and cloud infrastructure front.
The new cloud and data center balance
First, it’s essential to understand the various types of data center models.
- Traditional Data Centers: These facilities are designed to support one customer or client. They’re often built at a corporate campus and are typically managed by in-house staff.
- Colocation: This is a multi-tenant data center provider. These data center models can range from just a few thousand square feet to campuses over a million square feet. The largest colocation providers are known as hyperscale data centers.
- Cloud (Private): This is a direct subset of a colocation. Many private clouds exist directly within a colocation ecosystem. However, some organizations will build or lease facilities to create a custom private cloud ecosystem.
- Cloud (Public): This defines sizeable public cloud services like AWS, Azure and GCP. Public cloud providers usually have their own data centers, often as large as the hyperscale providers in the colocation space. It’s important to note that public cloud providers do not exclusively build their data centers, and they often partner with colocation and hyperscale colocation providers to extend their services.
- Edge: This class of data centers is designed to be smaller and often modular in architecture. Their purpose is to help bridge the connectivity gap, reduce latency and facilitate faster delivery of applications, data and services closer to businesses, cities, users and physical devices like cars, phones and other IoT devices.
Within each of the models above, there are internal deployment considerations. By understanding each data center model, IT professionals are implementing a hybrid solution for greater flexibility, capacity and cost savings.
