Ok so now we have talked briefly about the Business, products and services now we know what output we are getting in front of us, let us now start to move slowly into the technology part of it, starting with the area where the backend machinery is stored called as a "Datacenter"

Before we indulge into understanding what a Datacenter is, let me give you an analogy

Everyone reading this content is either using a Laptop / desktop or a Mobile, ok so while accessing this file its pretty evident that you need a physical device to access this file plus a software such as a Browser installed on the Device to open this file which means that for any kind of an IT product or service to be accessed you need a physical device, now if we talk about the heavy weight applications such as "Retail Internet Banking, Loans, Consumer Finance etc.; these are to be hosted somewhere for customers to access and since these applications would be accessed from millions of users maybe via Internet we can’t host them on a normal Laptop /Desktop which serves one or two users, the devices on which we host these applications are called SERVERS, To make it simple for you; imagine a Server as a machine similar to your desktop but with very high Compute configuration such as Multiple High Frequency Processors, More than 500 Gb RAM, Multiple NIC(Network Interface Card) cards with very high throughput, High IO based disks, Multiple Fiber cards, etc.

But if we talk about a Bank it does not host 1 or 2 applications but it has N number of Applications "An average bank has more than 300 major applications" and to host these applications you need hundreds of servers plus you may also need other components such as:

• Network Devices

• Storage

• Power

• Racks

• Chassis

• Plus many other components

Don’t be overwhelmed if you don’t understand some terms right of the bat, you may eventually get a hold of it as you progress reading ahead

All these components have to be placed and setup somewhere and protected of-course; as these are highly critical for the Business to run, if you are thinking that large institutions can create such a setup in their own office and manage then you are absolutely wrong because hosting within the Office premises and meeting the required standards for a "Datacenter" is next to Impossible especially for large corporates, it’s too early to talk about in detail the exact standards or reasons as to why this cannot be hosted In house but as you progress ahead, you may realize that the Servers and other setup for the applications cannot be hosted Inhouse

For now, in simple words just remember that “Datacenter” is a place where all your applications are hosted on physical equipment like servers along with all the Infrastructure components required; complying to all the regulatory and security policies

Now that you have basic knowledge of what a Datacenter is, let us try to dive a little bit more into it by looking at the components

Datacenter would be basically an isolated building slightly away from "Residential" or "commercial complexes" and a single Datacenter would be hosting the applications of multiple customers and term used for this kind of engagement between the customer and the datacenter provider is called Co-location (Rented Space and Power)

This is an extremely secure facility where only authorized personnel are allowed and with multiple levels of approvals and multiple factors of authentication, now let’s have a look at some components in the Datacenter:

Cage

When you enter a datacenter (On any floor) the first thing visible to you would be cages, yes cages! don’t worry there are no animals in it but you have huge Racks in it on which you physically install the Servers, routers and other equipment

Racks

Racks are basically stands on which you mount your devices, the rack is divided into small vertical sections called "RU" (Rack Units), 1 RU is around 1.75 inches and all the manufacturers of IT equipment know that they have to develop their equipment such that it should match the RU size accurately, for e.g. if you have a network device which you want to mount in the Rack then it would be either 1 RU, 2 RU, 3 RU and so on but it cannot be 1.5 RU or 2.5 RU

Redundant Power

We all know that the electronic devices need power to run and such critical devices may need redundant power which means they would be having 2 different power sources for a single device so that if one power source fails then the other power source can take over and your applications are not impacted. When I say 2 different power source I actually mean that 2 different Electricity providers which brings me to the point that every datacenter has power supplied by 2 different electricity providers at a minimum, you can't afford to have a single electricity provider because in case if that single provider goes down all your critical applications would go down

Apart from all these there are some other extreme measures available such as protection against fire, theft, physical access security, dual internet providers, etc.

Some Major "Datacenter services" providers in India are:

• Reliance

• Sify

• Netmagic

• CTRL-S

Now you know what a datacenter is but there is another acronym DC which means datacenter only but has a different meaning altogether, we would talk about the same in the next section