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Greetings everyone

I hope of finding an answer to my question.

I am currently researching Data Center architecture and explain in my upcoming discussion with my professor in regard to what a Data Center architecture is, what are the layers of any current Data Center and what does a data center technician have to be aware of nowadays in relation to the architecture layers (as he puts it):

  • Platform infrastructure

  • Network infrastructure.

  • Storage infrastructure.

  • Computing infrastructure.

  • service level agreement (SLA).

I am currently researching it and I do not mean for my question to be the answer that I will present, but a tool to confirm my findings, and provide proper resources from experts in the field.

  • emergency and incident response
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  • Platform infrastructure: power, cooling, fire, security. Monitoring and management of those. Data Centre “Tier levels”

For the others I think the quesiton is vague. One answer might be that the technician should be aware of the types of infrastrcuture or technology used on this basis I suggest that a technician should be aware of:

  • Network infrastructure. Aware of cabling infrastrcuture (different standards and solutions such as dense/cassette options) active networking aware of different architectures, top of rack, central, leaf spine. External connectivity, different networks such as management and environment vs customer network

  • Storage infrastructure. Aware of traditional JBOD, NAS, SAN backup etc

  • Computing infrastructure. Aware of compute - generix x86, blade, specuialist high performance, appliance

SLA - overall SLA, planned maintenance, downtime etc.

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Data centers have shifted from providing “racks” of space to high density meaning the lower the space and higher the compute requires insane amounts of KDubs Power.

That is really the main essence of data centers these days is how much power can I put in this tiny compact server… at least for the biggest companies with the most advanced cutting edge needs.

Beyond that data centers are hubs for inter-connectivity. Need to Onramp to Cloud Flare, AWS, Azure, some other cloud provider? A data center will have the connectivity to do that. There are data centers that are known by their addresses around the country for being the best places to go back to almost like an IDF but on a much grander scale.

There are companies within the data centers that specifically handle these kinds of network to network interfaces.

Then there is cloud compute and storage. These are large clusters of public cloud solutions where customers can buy a portion of a solution that would cost far too much for them to build on their own.

Choosing to actually lease space and power in a data center. Like the other user mentioned you want to understand, security, cooling, redundancy, fire suppression, Available ISPs, peering points, natural disaster zones and how they deal with that. There is a data center for every need and level of survive ability, you just need to work with someone who can understand all of that and make recommendations. Kind of like buying real estate.

As for the layers? All the models of the OSI are in there from the physical to application etc…

As for technicians working there. Employees of the data center probably have a variety of jobs going at all times from every level. They probably depending on the area have different protocol they have to respect while working as to not bring things down. Also from a customer side many customers utilize a data centers remote hands capabilities to assist with anything in their rack they may not be able to get to.

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