With thousands of companies competing, many of them say they own or run their own datacenter. But most of those statements are made by young people who might run a server or two from their basement.

So one question has been bugging me for a while: what exactly is a datacenter in Your perspective? Does the one "in the basement" count as one? What defines a dataceter? How do you think a datacenter should be and when should people have the right to call something a datacenter?

Best,

Well, while that should better be defined as a DataCellar lol yes, it does qualify IMO.

A datacenter, by definition is a facility used to house mission critical computer systems and associated components. This can be any location, as long as it serves it's purpose.

I certainly would not want any dc we're associated with, to be in someone's basement. The implications of that alone is dangerous.

For example, basements flood, not only a few inches of water (a raised floor wouldn't even help). When a basement floods, it will typically flood up to ground level, when the rain is heavy enough. This not only would kill your equipment but would completely submerge it in water.

When my servers start making me rich, then I have a datacenter!

Not necessarily Equinox, but I like your definition nevertheless.

For me a datacenter can be small or big, it doesn't really matter. What matters is the level of protection it gives for the things inside it (servers, I don't care much about the personnel. j/k ) and the way it ensures that everything will function normally even in difficult scenarios. Perhaps a certain minimum of requirements can be defined, but I'm sure not everyone will agree to that defined minimum.

Would you define a datacenter to be a room? What if you are operating within a Cage, that is still a Datacenter, is it not?

In my vision, a datacenter (to call it your own) should be a building owned by your company, with high speed lines (OC-Something) with a security system, backup power, thought-out ventilation system, and a monitoring system to insure that you are getting the most out of your machines. A good datacenter should be big enough for expansion, but not so big that your technicians need Segway's to get to a problem (as cool as that would be). A datacenter doesn't have to be huge though, it depends on the company. A company such as UPS or FedEx may need a datacenter to ensure that all of their mission critical systems are kept up and running. No mater how big or small, to me a datacenter should be a freestanding building for security and complete control.

So, if the company that runs the datacenter does not own the building or the building was not build primarily for this purpose (even though it still fits the purpose), the datacenter is no longer a datacenter?

I would define a datacenter, similar to how xcel described it, save for the building part as ldcdc has described. I would modify that to read the property is owned by the company (Be it leased or not). I would say that a clause would include it could not be a personal residence.

I don't see how "ownership" of the facility, or lack thereof, has anything to do with whether it can be called a "datacenter" or not.

By "ownership" I meant it's not your datacenter unless your name is on the lease or the building/area is in your name.

For instance, if I was 12 and had a "datacenter" (running a server out of my dad's office) then that is not my datacenter.

What I meant by "ownership" is that the building, or at least part of the building is owned by the company. I should have phrased it better. Lets give it another go:
The company should be in direct control of the management of "their portion" of the building. They should be free to drill holes in the wall and do whatever they need to do to make the datacenter fully functional and as versitile as possible. It definately helps if they own the building, because they will be free to do whatever they need to do such as knock out walls, build additions, etc, but it is not necessary that the company own the building itself, but it is unfair to have a closet in your office building and hook it up to a T1 and an APC battery and call it a datacenter.
Hope that clarifies it a bit!

No that would be a cage in someone else datacentre :p
And did you mean *cage* or rack ? very different things ...

IMHO as the director of a company with our own facilities *within* a datacentre, a DC is a well connected, custom built, maintained, secure environment for the location of computer equipment.
maintained in terms of power, environment (humidity/aircon/temp), fire supresion etc
secure in terms of physical security/access, protected against fire\flood etc

an office isn't a DC, its and office

an office with 18inch thick walls, 24/7 security, fm2000 fire system, aircon, raised flooring, private ducting for data-cables, onsite technical staff, biometric and pin access systems, lockable server racks, building wide ups, generator backup, multiple diverse incoming fibre connections to all the major ISPs and Telco's - thats a DC

As a somewhat uneducated consumer ... my idea of a datacenter is pretty much as "othellotech" has described it.

JMHO
Peter

My datacenter is "old" (meaning opterons <246) leeched from OSU's tech and hospital area, donated to me. It is then moved to my fathers company, which uses a OC3 which i leech bandwidth off of. I rock climb at the local climbing gym with the network admin, and he allocated 45mbps up/down for my "datacenter". Its actually made from a collection of server put into my homemade server rack (read: hardwood 1 inch think from home depot, with metal pillars along corners. think those cheap plywood racks, except mine is thinner, looks better, and holds a bit more expensive stuff)

"In my vision, a datacenter (to call it your own) should be a building owned by your company, with high speed lines (OC-Something) with a security system, backup power, thought-out ventilation system, and a monitoring system to insure that you are getting the most out of your machines. A good datacenter should be big enough for expansion, but not so big that your technicians need Segway's to get to a problem (as cool as that would be). A datacenter doesn't have to be huge though, it depends on the company. A company such as UPS or FedEx may need a datacenter to ensure that all of their mission critical systems are kept up and running. No mater how big or small, to me a datacenter should be a freestanding building for security and complete control.
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Jordan
XcelHosting.NET "

Perfection jordan, this is what i think to, ciuldnt have said it better myself,