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Begin blog: isn't it too late for a data center?

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title: Isn't it too late to build a data center?
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pub_date: 2019-10-09
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author: ungleich
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twitter_handle: ungleich
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_hidden: no
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_discoverable: yes
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abstract:
Is it or is it not too late to build a data center?
---
body:
The very valid question,
[Isn't it too late....to build a
data center?](https://twitter.com/Mac_S13/status/1181983378100424710)
was asked on Twitter and it made our team here in Glarus smile a lot
and we decided to write a blog article about this question.
## Fiber = the advantage of a data center?
According to the tweet, the main strength of a data center is fast
network connection, or the fiber line that you have. And nowadays,
everyone has fast fiber, so it follows that data centers are maybe not
needed anymore.
## TL;DR
It is not that easy.
## How to run a data center in reality
Some time ago we wrote about
[How to run a really green
data center](https://ungleich.ch/de/cms/ungleich-blog/2019/07/12/how-run-really-green-datacenter/).
Admittedly, the question was not about running a **green** data
center, so let's dive a bit more into it.
Running a data center like we do at [Data Center
Light](https://datacenterlight.ch) does indeed require a fiber
connection. To be precise, actually a couple.
## How much fiber is enough fiber?
Don't tell anyone, but geeks are working at ungleich. And according to
geeks, there is never enough fiber. But for real, how much fiber is
needed? In our case, running a data center at 3 different locations,
requires a couple of dark fiber lines and a couple of redundant
upstream connections. Using the rule of thumb, let's say we need at
least 3 fiber connections:
* One for location A
* One for location B
* One to connect locations A and B
So are three fiber connections enough?
## What is actually in a data center?
Maybe the real question is, why would you run a data center at all?
Alright, for the geeks of us, "just because I can" is a reason, but
let's think about other cases as well. For instance we are running a
data center, because we our customers asked us to run one (easy, isn't
it?). So some years ago we started buying hardware like switches,
servers, SSDs, cables, transceivers, disks, network cards, access
points and even much, much more cables.
And why did we do that? Because we were asked to host virtual machines
and data for our existing customers. So if you want to run a data
center, you also need a bit of hardware.
And there comes one of the bigger problems: hardware also needs to be
turned on. And if it is on, it actually consumes energy and you do not
proper fuses. Not only the ones inside the data center, but also the
ones going into the building!
## More information
You can get in touch with us via
* email: info at ungleich.ch
* chat: [chat.ungleich.ch](https://chat.ungleich.ch)