Building an in house data center for your private data is necessary if you want to maintain strict control of your digital assets. As a business grows, the computing power needed to effectively store and manage digital assets grows as well. Storing crucial data is as important to a company as the product they manufacture or the services they provide. A data center is a central hub for storing this important data, as well as a tool that manages the computer infrastructure for administrative purposes and streamlines production, logistics & marketing resources.

As data continues to be a big part of a company’s most valuable assets, it is important to realize the value of maintaining these assets in-house. You have to protect it and have a way to manage your daily activities. An in-house data center constructed inside your facility makes your servers accessible to IT staff and maintenance crews to keep them running effectively. Having an integrated in-house data center solution supports the value you place on privacy, accessibility and ownership of your data servers and business information.

A Dedicated Workflow, Updates & Maintenance Require More In house Control

An in-house data center is perfect for companies that require a dedicated system that gives them control over their data and how it is used. Another advantage is that your servers can be more easily maintained, and hardware upgrades can be done in a timely manner with limited downtime and travel required by the IT staff. When an issue crops up, as it always does, you have the hardware at hand as opposed to it being located remotely. If you have enough space for the number of racks you’ll be using, then it makes sense to install or expand your own in house data center. The alternative is to rent rack space off site to house and secure your digital assets and remotely manage them. It makes sense to place critical data backups off site for safety and security reasons, which should be a general practice for any company.
An in-house data center provides a more controlled way to access crucial, private and sensitive data that is the key to your day to day operations. These data driven processes are better served in house, such as personnel data, production processes, logistics, billing and even online sales are better protected by keeping this information in your control. Assuring data safety and confidentiality are of paramount importance and having your data located in house adds to customer confidence.

How Can I Determine Cost For Building A Data Center?

If you already have a cooling and duct infrastructure in place it could be relatively easy to make a data center enclosure around it, thus reducing the cost to install and operate a hot or cold aisle containment solution.
There are other things to consider before determining if building an in-house data center is cost effective. For instance, if you have access to fiber cables in your area, an acceptable  layout configuration, power capacity of your heating and cooling equipment, and if you have adequate space to install a data center enclosure inside your facility. An experienced HVAC/CRAC company can help you determine what, if anything, is needed and can help you find the best place to build a layout around existing air ducts and air returns.
Many servers can be housed in multiple rack cabinets, and the floor space is based upon how many cabinets are used. A small data center can contain as few as 1-4 server cabinets, whereas a larger data center with 8 or more cabinets is placed in a layout that requires aisle containment.
You may already have an integrated data infrastructure in place with a reliable service provider for your phones and computers. If they can provide sufficient data processing speeds, data security and service, then this can make the cost of housing your own data center more attainable and affordable.

Allocate Space for a Private Data Center

If you already have these things in place, or they can be reasonably added, an in-house data center could provide a cost efficient way to privately store and manage your data. While cloud companies have the necessary cooling equipment for a vast amount of server units, it still costs money to place your data in this type of ‘out of your control’ and ‘shared’ environment. An in-house data center is physically connected to your local network, making it easier to control who uses your data systems. This way you have more control of company approved personnel that can access your data, apps and equipment.

Find out more about creating an in house data center to fit your needs. FabraCraft is a quality fabricator of data center aisle containment products used to control air flow patterns and temperature zones to keep your servers running effectively and efficiently. Visit our website to see examples of data center enclosures that can be installed in your facility. Contact FabraCraft for assistance in finding the right data center containment solution for your business.