In this section of our website we attempt to give our clients quick and simple definitions of various data center technologies.
The delivery of computing resources by a 3rd company by way of a network connection. These resources can be rented in increments as small as 1 minute or less in some cases.
The act of placing computer servers in a data center facility which provides an environment to provide the maximum uptime possible for applications running on the server. Colocation is most commonly in reference to placing servers outside of ones own server room or in-house data center.
A cabinet that resembles a locker which is designed to house computer servers. These cabinets average about 73.5 in high and allow the secure bolting in of equipment.
A special rack designed to hold network equipment. These racks typically hold 42U worth of equipment that are bolted into the rack using rails on each side of the device. Colocation Cabinets and Racks are used interchangeably sometimes but racks were more known for telephony hardware and network hardware. Servers can still be installed into a rack however.
A building built or retrofitted to house computing hardware. Most data center designs include multiple layers of power, network, cooling and security to ensure that computing hardware never fails.
The underlying software running on a server that provides the ability to virtualize server instances. Popular Hypervisors include VMWare, KVM, Xen and RHEV.
The ability to logically divide a single computer into multiple instances each operating independently in all regards while still sharing the resources of a single machine.
