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I am a software developer. My company is planning to take advantage of visualization and host its servers at a data center. I understand the difference between the cloud and self hosting at a data centre. I have read a few articles e.g.this one: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4982-cloud-vs-data-center.html, which talks about cloud hosting v data centre hosting.

I have discovered that my company has recently invested heavily in hardware and is installing it at the data centre next week. I thought the purpose of a data centre was to "rent" hardware that already exists. Are you expected to buy your own servers and install them yourself?

I will be responsible for migrating a lot of our apps to the data centre.

w0051977
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Both options are available, but generally speaking, if you're getting space in a data center, you're doing it in order to put your own gear in - this is referred to as "colocation".

If you're getting a service where you're not dealing with the physical infrastructure, you probably don't care about where that physical infrastructure resides (so it's probably not all sitting in a rack or cage in the datacenter dedicated to your company). These kinds of services fall under the umbrella of "managed services", or various "something-as-a-service" offerings, or, indeed, "cloud".

It sounds like your company is getting colocation space, so your company responsible for the hardware, while the host will provide power and cooling (and potentially the internet uplink).

Shane Madden
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  • Thanks. +1. What is the point of a data centre if you are colocating? I guess you get the benefit of power, network etc. – w0051977 Jun 21 '14 at 19:20
  • @w0051977 Yup, that's the entire point - it's generally far more expensive to equip a facility yourself for those servers than it is to rent some space in a facility that has far greater scale than you could; your building might not have the power it needs, the power systems (batteries and generators) and the cooling systems you need aren't cheap and need maintenance, and there's easy access to internet providers at a shared facility. – Shane Madden Jun 21 '14 at 19:24
  • OK thanks. I have asked another question about our virtualisation setup here: http://serverfault.com/questions/607009/dell-vworkspace-and-microsoft-system-centre-integration – w0051977 Jun 21 '14 at 19:30
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Your company is likely using a colocation (colo) center. The difference with a colo being the physical equipment resides in in a building that is not your own. With a colo your equipment would be racked in secure sections, separate from other customers'. They would provide power, network connectivity (depends), cooling, physical security. Each center is different and the terms of these agreements should be fully understood.

The "cloud" is essentially hosting on equipment/servers that you do not own, in a location you don't. There's more to it an you can rent dedicated equipment, but this is the basic idea.

HostBits
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