Computer storage might not be something that is at the forefront of our minds all the time, but one thing is for sure: it definitely matters. I have trouble keeping all of my documents straight, let alone organized. Even my external hard drive, with a whole terabyte of storage available, is starting to get full.
Such is the life of someone with a small business and a lot of data to store, I suppose. That being said, obviously I do not want to keep this sort of system going for too long. This motivated me to start researching some alternatives.
Some of you might already be thinking that the obvious one is getting a server. While this is totally true, just keep in mind that for a long time I was totally clueless about this stuff. I was using guides like this one, https://www.explainingcomputers.com/storage.html, just to get a vague understanding of the components of computers. Cut me some slack!
If you feel a similar way and have been lost on what to do about your overflowing folders and hard drives, this might just be the article for you. I will be going into detail about data center servers and how they could potentially assist anyone experiencing this.
What is a Data Center?
No deep dive on this topic would be complete without offering you a definition for the main thing in question, right? So, what is a data center, then? In simple terms, it is a repository that holds at least one (but often far more) cloud servers for people to store their information. The goal is to allow many people to access those files at once, no matter if they are in physical proximity to each other or not.
Often, this is called a “multicloud,” which refers to this type of storage. You have probably heard of clouds before, considering many of us store our data in this method without even realizing it anymore. If you have ever used your Google Drive or any other equivalents, then you have utilized a cloud server.
So then, what is a data center server and why should we care about it? I will get into the latter half of that question in the next section, but to answer the first, it is simply the server within that data center. I know – it is not nearly as complicated as it sounds, right? I am quite sure that I am far from the only person thankful for that.
Why They are so Important
Admittedly, this section will mostly cater to people who work for or own a business. Think about how annoying it would be if you still had to carry around a thumb drive that held all of your projects. Likely, you would have to take it between home and work, and let others borrow it if they wanted to see your progress or collaborate.
Updates that they made would have to be saved to that thumb drive, too, or you would not be able to see them. Many of us remember those days, and I for one certainly do not miss them. It was frustrating to have to go through that many hoops just to share a file – not to mention the stress of losing the little thing that held all of that precious work.
Part of what makes data centers so useful for businesses is that the frustration of working with those little drives can be mitigated, and even avoided altogether. While we can see in this article, https://smallbusiness.chron.com/flash-drives-ever-bad-75074.html, that many have already made this shift, it is fair that not everyone wants to transition.
However, to say that the change can boost productivity is putting it lightly. Now, employees are able to share their files across virtual servers in an instant, rather than having to share one drive. They can even work on the same project at the same time, and see the changes made in real time rather than many hours later.
This applies to everything, too. That includes emails. No more fussing with annoying multi-step verifications just because we are trying to log in at home rather than at our work computer (depending on your system, of course). They can certainly relieve some of the headache there, at least.
While not everyone finds these issues equally annoying or stressful, when we are working for a large company or if we own a business of any size, the little things can pile up. Anyone on a strict schedule will probably appreciate the ability to transfer files and data quickly rather than having to physically walk it to their coworkers.
There are other uses for them too, of course, but this one seemed like the most relevant. Hopefully, this has given you some insights into how they can be utilized.
