Term
Data centre
A building or room housing servers, storage and network equipment, with backup power, cooling, fire protection and physical security. Companies run their own servers there or use the cloud services hosted in it.
Updated
What it means
A data centre is a building or room housing servers, storage and network equipment, with backup power, cooling, fire protection and physical security. Companies run their own servers there or use the cloud services hosted in it.
Data centres are classified by resilience, often using the Tier I to IV standard. A higher tier means duplicated power, cooling and connectivity, so the failure of one component does not stop operations. The price of space and energy rises accordingly.
A company can have its own server room, rent space in someone else's data centre as colocation, or use hosting and the cloud, where it does not deal with hardware at all. A common choice is a hybrid model combining in-house systems with the cloud.
How it works in practice
When choosing a provider, compare the availability guaranteed in the SLA, security certifications, location, technician access, energy prices and connectivity to carriers. For sensitive data such as accounting or health records, it matters that the data centre is in the EU.
The data centre is part of the business continuity plan. Critical systems should have backups at another site so that a fire or flood at one centre does not stop the business, and disaster recovery must be tested regularly.
In the accounts, own servers are depreciated as tangible assets, while space rental, hosting or cloud services are operating costs. Moving to the cloud turns capital expenditure into regular monthly payments, which affects cash flow and measures such as EBITDA.
What to watch out for
An in-office server room is often the weakest link: no backup power, a single air conditioner and access for anyone with an office key. A power cut or overheating can leave data unavailable for days and may damage the hardware.
Data centres use a lot of energy, and the EU is adding obligations to report their consumption and efficiency. In ESG reporting, the use of IT services counts towards a company's carbon footprint, so providers increasingly state their energy source and PUE ratio.
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