Leaders in the data center industry unveil some myths about this economic sector that every day drives technological development and competitiveness.
Equinix
March 23 is International Data Center Day, an event with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of this type of technological real estate and its role in digitization in all economic sectors and industries. According to a study by Stocklytics.com it is estimated that the global data center market will grow 30% and exceed 430,000 million dollars by 2028.
Amet Novillo, Equinix's general manager for Mexico, explains that today the lack of knowledge of what the data center industry represents in terms of economic development and comprehensive technological growth is a major challenge, however, the market in the country is experiencing rapid growth due to the country's strategic location for international connectivity and its favorable business environment.
"Today our ability to work, communicate and entertain ourselves depends more and more on the Internet, and this depends, in turn, on data centers. All industries and economic sectors are in a constant transformation and the digital infrastructure must be prepared to speed up the transition of businesses," Novillo stressed.
In Mexico, according to a joint study carried out by DCD Intelligence and IDC for the Mexican Association of Data Centers (MEXDC), there are 109 data centers operating in the country, located mainly in the states of Querétaro, Monterrey, Guanajuato and CDMX.
Equinix, the world's digital infrastructure company for the Americas region, has 85 data centers strategically located in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the United States, Mexico and Peru, through which more than 10Tbps of information is distributed. This amount is equivalent to about 650,000 people watching a streaming video in 4K quality at the same time.
On the occasion of the celebration for the data center industry, Equinix experts took on the task of delving into 5 most common myths vs. the reality about data centers:
Myth 1: Only large enterprises need data centers
• Fact: Both small and large businesses can benefit from data centers. Small businesses can use colocation services or cloud services to access advanced digital infrastructure without large upfront investments and become more agile to meet digitization needs.
Myth 2: The cloud is not a physical thing
• Reality: The "cloud" refers to a network of physical servers located in data centers around the world. These servers store, process, and distribute data, allowing access to online services and applications from anywhere connected and at any time.
Myth 3: Data centers are just storage
• Reality: In addition to storing data, data centers also process and distribute information, support online applications and services, and provide redundancy and disaster recovery. Its infrastructure allows you to carry out almost any activity from shopping, paying, communicating, ordering food, watching a movie, booking a trip, accessing a video conference, requesting transportation and even playing online games through any connected device.
Myth 4: All data centers are the same
• Reality: There are different types of data centers, such as hyperscale, managed by large companies to meet the dynamic workloads of their systems; There are colocation data centers, which offer space and services to multiple customers. In the face of the trend of systems that need real-time interactions, there are also Edge data centers. Each type has specific characteristics and uses.
Myth 5: Running a data center is easy
• Reality: Managing a data center is complex and requires specialized knowledge in infrastructure, security, networking, and energy management. In addition, a trained team is needed to maintain continuous and efficient operation since with the accelerated innovation of systems based on Artificial Intelligence for analysis and business decision-making, workloads in data centers represent a clear challenge in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability.
It is undeniable that today data centers play a vital role in meeting the demand for high value-added services, availability, processing and storage of digital data on a large scale. They are practically the heart of digital economies, safeguarding and enabling access to data at all times.
