Lights out data centre are facilities that are automated, thus eliminating human intervention.

Data Centres are a pivotal part of any organization. As the industry is moving from data constrained economy to a data abundant economy, data centers are regarded as rescuers of the organizations. Due to emerging technology, the amount of structured and unstructured data collected, generated and shared is exponential. A study by IBM indicates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day. Despite this data mammoth, the industry is still data-hungry.

Moreover, it becomes unnerving for organizations to manage huge data. The many tools employed in the organizations, assist in data management to a certain extent, but still, a huge fraction of this data remains unguarded and un-utilized. Over the years, organizations have shifted towards data centers to solve the data challenges.

What is data centre?

A data centre is a physical data storage facility in an organization that hosts applications and data. Its design depends on the computing resources and storage facilities that enable the sharing process. Routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers and application-delivery components are the essential factors for setting up a data centre.

Unlike traditional models, the modern-day data centre is shifted to virtual networks that allow seamless transfer of data to take place. A modern-day data centre aids in email and file sharing, enterprise resource management, customer relationship management, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning amongst others. For a successful data centre, organizations must have robust network infrastructure, well-equipped storage capacity and accurate computing resources.

Data center operations are governed by network security appliances such as firewalls, to protect the data from intrusion thus thwarting cyberattacks, malware and ransomware, and application delivery assurance. A data centre facility includes power sub-systems, hardware, UPS, ventilation, cooling systems, fire suppression, backup generators and connectors to external networks.

Challenges Associated with Modern Data Centers

Despite the robustness of the data centre, it requires human intervention. It demands humans to be precise and vigilant while handling a data centre. The slightest mistake by humans such as the spilling of drinks can stall operations and affect the entire network and applications. Moreover, it becomes a challenging task for organizations to maintain various processes of the data centre at the same time. Over the years due to increased demand for data centers, data centers have become extremely human dependent. As this dependency has towered, the incidents of cyber attacks and malware in data centers have also amplified. Organizations are now facing the challenge to secure data centre operations to mitigate the cyberattacks.

With COVID 19, the challenges have been amplified. As most organizations are working remotely, they are unable to access the on-site data centers. The demand for making data centers autonomous or automated has grown since a few years. As enterprises are taking cognizance to have an automated solution for the data centers, the concept of lights out data centre is gaining momentum.

What are the Lights Out Data Centre?

Experts view traditional data centers to be at a dark stage. It has nothing to do with the power-cut or mismanaged storage capacity. But this notion has been conceptualized due to extensive demand for data centers.

Lights out data centers are the facilities, servers or computer rooms that function without human intervention. It is an isolated area that can be present within the premises of the organization or can be set-up in a separate facility that is devoid of human accessibility. It limits human fluctuations and eliminates the unnecessary usage of electricity and energy, which maintains the proper climate inside the room. Moreover, as it is without a human network, communications and operations are done through external processes. It eradicates the risk of threat or cyberattacks, thus maintaining lower insurance costs. Additionally, as the lights out data storage facility is devoid of human intervention, the incidents of spilling drinks or accidentally stepping over cords are minimal. Owing to these reasons, organizations are now embracing the concept of Lights Out Data center.

However, the transition is not entirely smooth. It requires extensive planning by organizations to eliminate the risk of errors.

Transitioning into a Lights Out Data Centre

Like mentioned earlier, transforming a traditional data centre set-up into lights out or automated data centre is not a task that can be achieved in a single day or a week. For this, organizations need to employ certain protocol that will aid in the automation process. For example, the organizations must analyze the infrastructure of the data centre and select a vendor or a standard platform. The organizations must hone their automation skills and perform automation common tasks to eliminate the risk of errors. By making a list of the task requiring automation, it would aid in prioritizing task by frequency and complexity. The organizations can install robots in data centres so that the full impact of automation can be achieved.

For a cloud-based data centre, artificial intelligence can be leveraged to aid in predictive analytics, performance benchmarking and useful recommendations. Additionally, since the organizations are rendered to work remotely these data centers can be accessed through mobile phones and laptops, eliminating the risk of cyberattacks.