In this video, we're going to talk about data centre and cloud storage.
What is a data centre, how does it work, what's cloud storage, how does that work, and why
are these things important to you and your business.
Good day Dan, how are you?
Good, thanks Tim.
So, you run an IT services company, you're probably a great person to ask about cloud
storage and data centres.
Let's start with data centres.
Firstly, what are they and why would I care as a business owner?
So data centres used to be for large businesses where they store their data, instead of having
their computers in their office, they'd keep them in a data centre.
So think of places like large banks (right), insurance companies.
So they'd build a data centre somewhere else, and put all of their computers and stuff there.
That's right.
And they have fast cables that connect their business into that data centre.
So a data centre is a big room that has the right temperature, so it's temperature-controlled,
there's gas suppression systems in case there's a fire that it protects the equipment that's
inside there.
But then there's just rows and rows of what are servers and hard drives effectively just
like the one that might be sitting in people's office today.
But (more of them) Many more of them.
Thousands and thousands.
Alright, good.
So now, why would I care, for example as a small business, if this is something that
only big insurance companies do?
So, it used be for the large companies and it used to be a luxury that only large companies
could move their data into a data center.
But now, small companies can do it.
The reason why small companies really should be looking do it is that, in some cases there's
big efficiencies that you can get by moving your data into a data center, over and above
having your data sitting on a server that's in your office.
So, for example you're able to use storage in a data centre that is much more accessible
than having to upgrade the hard drives in your server in your office.
So, instead of having to do a large server upgrade and put new hard drives into that
server in your office, which might take days or weeks to be able to get installed, you
can literally just go into a web portal, increase the amount of hard drive storage you have
in the data centre and yeah, that happens within a few minutes.
And I imagine, it's their business to keep their systems upgraded and as quick as possible
and all that stuff, that sort of happens on automatic pilot.
Yeah, and that's the role of a data centre provider as well so the business owner doesn't
have to worry about upgrading their servers and upgrading their hard drives and putting
new air-conditioning systems and that's all taken care of by the data center provider.
What's the relationship between cloud storage and a data centre?
So, a data centre generally has the storage or the hard drives
that are used as cloud storage.
So, a data centre is cloud storage in a way?
The data centre is part of cloud storage.
That's right.
So most of what you would see in a data centre are the hard drives where people will store
their photos and their cat videos, and things like that.
You need a lot of room for cat videos, I think.
Yeah.
How do you, do you need to, I wanna say, pick a data centre?
Do you need to sort of say, "okay, I wanna be in that centre that's, you know, over cross
town on the west side," or does it not really matter, I mean how do you sort of, how is
this even relevant to a business?
So this is where we're talking about private cloud versus public cloud which we have talked
about before.
So, this is private cloud and a business needs to be able to - in private cloud they do need
to know where is their data gonna sit.
It really just comes down to the quality of the data centre.
Is it a building that is fairly new, does it have the right air-conditioning, does it
have the right security going into the data centre, is it the right choice for being able
to move your data into that particular location.
I've heard that some of these data centres are getting pretty big.
The ones for, I wanna say, Apple and Google and what have you, I mean these things are
getting pretty enormous, aren't they?
Tim, data centres are springing up all over the country.
There's several hundred in Australia operating right now and again these are just big warehouses
filled with hard drives and servers.
So you're probably driving pass somewhere you don't even know.
You're probably sitting in a room right next door to one.
Right now?
Alright, thanks very much.
I appreciate that.
If you'd like to find out more about data centres and cloud storage, IT Services and
Cloud Services, and so on, please get in touch with us through the website sabervox.com.au