Hyperscale data centers are enormous facilities that are built and designed to handle large-scale IT infrastructure. This type of data center is therefore often owned and used by businesses that place extreme demands on scalable and robust services within data processing and storage. Hyperscale data centers are often associated with companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook.
What does hyperscale mean?
In this context, hyperscale means the ability to “scale up” the IT infrastructure. This is often with a larger service layer on top of the infrastructure.
What characterizes a hyperscale data center?
Hyperscale data centers are significantly larger than regular data centers. In addition, they are capable of handling a larger volume of data than others.
Other elements that characterize hyperscale data centers are:
Energy sources. Hyperscale data centers require a lot of energy to operate the servers and cooling systems. Although many of these facilities have a low PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), there are many suppliers who build in areas with cheaper electricity due to their size and power requirements. Many are also choosing to power their data centers from sustainable sources to improve energy efficiency.
Safety. There are very strict security requirements at hyperscale data centers. Gaining physical access to these centers will be next to impossible, unless you are authorized. They also secure their network against security attacks, by configuring firewalls and encrypting all data points.
Automation. Hyperscale data centers contain thousands of servers and other types of hardware, as well as supporting infrastructure such as power and cooling systems. Manual monitoring of systems on such a large scale is therefore not possible. For that reason, hyperscale data centers make use of automation through various systems, which monitor, measure and manage resources across the entire infrastructure.
Summary
A hyperscale data center is a type of data center specifically designed to handle and store large amounts of data. This type of data center is therefore often associated with large companies, such as Google and Amazon. As a result of its size, hyperscale stands out from other data centers with its huge need for energy sources, strict requirements for security and automation.
Do want to learn more about different data centers? Read more about it in the link below:
