Not All Are Built Equal
Building a desktop from scratch was really popular, reaching its peak in the 1980s. Whether a novice or a tech enthusiast, it was common to visit local computer component shops to hand-pick different parts, from motherboards to microprocessors, graphics cards and RAM cards, and even an aluminium enclosure that could be fully customisable to house all components. Depending on your budget, you could own a basic desktop for a few hundred dollars or spend tens of thousands to upgrade to a high-end gaming machine, claiming the title of the ultimate gaming machine in town.
Shifting the focus to the mega side of things, data centres are large-scale, centralised facilities where companies house IT infrastructure and critical systems such as cabinets, racks, power supplies, and HVAC to store, process, and analyse data. Think of a data centre being a million times larger than a desktop – the construction process is pretty similar, also beginning with a design to be conceptualized and confirmed at the initial phase, followed by the selection of different components. Considering the budgets that data centre owners have, every data centre should be designed with variations to fit different requirements, as each facility has its own advantages. Today, colocation data centres are easier to build compared to giant hyperscalers, offering valuable support for businesses’ daily data analytics and operational needs.
Data centres, regardless of size, cannot afford to experience downtime. An outage at a data centre would cause disruptions to online business transactions and data transmissions etc., with big major enterprises historically reporting millions of dollars of losses, from server connection failures. To avoid heavy financial penalties, businesses look for data centres that offer the reliability that matches their ideal uptime specifications.
Defined by the Uptime Institute, the Tier Classification System1 is the global standard for data centre reliability. Based on an assessment of factors including uptime guarantee, redundancy levels, fault tolerance and service and maintenance protocols, data centres will be awarded a credible ranking from the Uptime Institute.
The redundancy tiers from Tier 1 to 4, offers an unbiased view on how a data centre is operated. Tier 1 represents the most basic level, while Tier 4 meets the most stringent of requirements with the highest fault tolerance levels. These tiers give end users a clear understanding of the level of reliability they can expect from the service they choose.
The reliability of a data centre depends on the facility’s ability to maintain the infrastructure’s critical components such as Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), backup generators, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), HVAC systems, and pumps, where all play their role in ensuring seamless, disruption-free performance.
Supporting functions such as the Building Management System (BMS) and Surveillance Systems are vital in creating a conducive working environment and monitoring security, to ensure the safety of the spaces within and around the data centre facility.
To power these systems effectively, data centres rely on a range of cable and connection solutions. For instance, special cable solutions such as Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) cables are commonly used in HVAC applications, while harnessed cable solutions support BESS interconnections. Low-frequency cables, data transmission cables, and fire alarm cables are essential for BMS and security surveillance systems.
Find out more from our Data Centre application guide!
1. https://uptimeinstitute.com/tiers