A data center is a centralized repository, either physical or virtual, for the storage, management, and dissemination of data and information organized around a particular body of knowledge or pertaining to a particular business.

A data center often requires extensive redundant or backup power supply systems, cooling systems, redundant networking connections and policy-based security systems for running the enterprise’s core applications.

Data center management involves ensuring the reliability of both the connections to the data center as well as the mission-critical information contained within the data center’s storage. It also entails efficiently placing application workloads on the most cost-effective compute resource available.