Question 1

What's the difference between a Data Center and the Cloud?

Accepted Answer

A data center is the physical building with servers, storage, power, and networking. “The cloud” is a way of renting computing resources on demand—usually from someone else’s data centers—so you don’t have to buy and manage all the hardware yourself.

Question 2

When should I use my own Data Center instead of cloud services?

Accepted Answer

Consider your own data center when you have strict data residency or regulatory needs that you can’t meet in the cloud, very predictable long-term workloads where owning hardware may be cost-effective, specialized hardware requirements, or you need full physical control. Many organizations choose a hybrid approach: keep some systems in a data center and use cloud for flexibility and scaling.

Question 3

How much does a Data Center cost?

Accepted Answer

Costs vary widely based on size and reliability requirements. Major cost factors include building/space (or colocation rent), servers and storage, networking gear, power and cooling, internet connectivity, physical security, staffing/operations, maintenance, and redundancy (backup power, multiple network links). Higher uptime targets (like N+1 or 2N redundancy) significantly increase costs.

Data Center

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