History of Data Centre Development

Abstract

Computers are used to solve different problems. For solving these problems computer software and hardware are used, but for operations of those computing facilities a Data Centre is necessary. Therefore, development of the data centre is subordinated to solvable tasks and computing resources. We are studying the history of data centres' development, taking into consideration an understanding of this. In the beginning of the computer era computers were installed in computing centres, because all computing centres have defined requirements according to whom their operation is intended for. Even though the concept of 'data centre' itself has been used since the 1990s, the characteristic features and requirement descriptions have been identified since the beginning of the very first computer operation. In this article the authors describe the historical development of data centres based on their personal experience obtained by working in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Latvia and comparing it with the theory of data centre development, e.g. standards, as well as other publicly available information about computer development on the internet.

ICT History Study as Corporate Philanthropy in Latvia

“…The authors, being part of the ICT History study volunteers, based their findings on academic work experience. The author's publications of ICT History in Latvia are presented [33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

“…Publication describes the history of data center development. In the beginning of the computer era, computers were installed in computing centers because all computing centers have specific requirements according to which their operation is intended for[35]. d. Way of Internet development in Eastern Europe.…”

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“…Indeed, a main point of competition between hosting providers is the uptime metric, expressed in their Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) 16 . There might be, however, a trade-off and diminishing returns effect between maximising uptime, i.e., a resource's availability, and its resource utilisation 17 [18]. The industry-standard requirement of fast responsiveness further means that data centres need to provision computing resources based on load peaks, which may result in wasted resources in the average case.…”

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