How does I.T. Support Student Success?

The role of information technology (I.T.) in supporting student success has become increasingly important in modern educational institutions. From online course management systems to virtual learning environments, I.T. plays a vital role in the day-to-day operations of educational establishments. It is no surprise, then, that an increasing number of universities and schools are investing in the latest I.T. infrastructure to support the learning and development of their students.

All online educational techniques are referred to as digital education. According to projections, the global e-learning market is expected to reach 243 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. The demand for self-paced e-learning products was worth 46.67 billion dollars in 2016 and is expected to fall to 33.5 billion dollars in 2021. A sizeable portion of academic staff worldwide has demonstrated a desire to support modern, digital education paradigms.

Higher education institutions are replacing traditional resources with educational technologies to stay up with their population of digital learners due to the adoption of remote learning. This article provides an overview of the role of I.T. in supporting student success, including the different types of I.T. services available and how they can be used to enhance the learning experience. By exploring the latest tools and technologies available, institutions can ensure that their students can access the resources they need to achieve their academic goals.

Technology as a Bridge Connecting Students and School

Technology has become an integral part of the educational system. It is used for many things, such as distance learning, teleconferencing, and video conferencing. The use of technology in schools has made it easy for students to learn from anywhere in the world.

The use of technology in teaching has been a big success and has helped many students gain knowledge. Teachers must incorporate technology into their lessons and activities to make the most of this opportunity. This way, they can reach out to more people and teach them at a greater level of proficiency.

Schools are already using technology in innovative ways across multiple platforms such as apps, e-books, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These tools allow teachers and administrators to engage with students in previously impossible ways — especially when it comes to supporting those who may need extra assistance. At the same time, they’re out of school because of illness or other reasons beyond their control (such as family obligations).

Role of I.T in Student Success

Below are some ways to implement a student approach using innovative technology in the classroom to boost student success and promote engagement.

Help with Online Education

Students can learn at home or on their schedule with the right tools. If you’re unfamiliar with software programs like Moodle, which is used for online education, ask your school district about the available resources. You may even be able to get training from a local organization such as the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).

Data Security of Student Records

Schools should ensure that all student data is secure and that students can access their files whenever needed. Check with your school district about how this information will be kept safe on their computers and storage systems. It’s also essential that parents understand this information because if they don’t know what’s going on with their child’s information, they could be missing out on crucial learning opportunities!

Cleaned Up Every Summer & Winter Break

During the summer and winter breaks, students are away from school and often at home with family members or friends. It’s easy for distractions to creep into online life too! This can lead to poor grades on assignments or missed deadlines for projects due in class.

Active Participation

Students can now participate more actively in their educational experience because of technology. They no longer follow what is written in the book; instead, they are much more motivated to research other issues independently. Technology gives them the freedom they need to do so. This encourages active engagement, significantly increasing their interest in their subjects.

In-Class Tech Support

In-class tech support is crucial for students struggling with issues or questions during class. There are many ways a teacher can provide tech support in their classroom; however, one of the most popular methods is using Google Classroom. This application allows teachers to create assignments and assign them to students, automatically sending out notifications for problems or errors during class. Students will receive email notifications if there is an error with their assignment or if it needs to be rescheduled at another time due to lack of attendance or other issues.

Networking and Internet

Networking is a critical component of any educational institution’s technology infrastructure. Ensuring students have access to the internet, reliable connectivity, and wireless networks that meet their needs is essential for student success (and teacher retention).

It helps Connect Students to the Real World

I.T. can help students make connections between the natural world and the classroom. Many students had no experience with computers or the internet before starting high school. This can make it difficult for them to find ways to apply their knowledge in the real world. I.T. provides opportunities for students to engage with technology, which will help them become more well-rounded individuals who are prepared for college and career success beyond high school graduation day.

Help Desk for Teachers and Parents

A help desk for teachers and parents will help ensure everyone can access the student Chromebook whenever needed, regardless of where they are in the world. It’s an easy way to ensure students get access to their materials while ensuring teachers and parents can provide support when they need it most.

Increases the Enjoyment Element of Learning

Students use technology in every part of their lives outside of the classroom. Technology can enhance the learning experience in the school. Teachers can use interactive games and leaderboards to give lessons using teaching strategies like game-based learning (GBL). Does anyone enjoy playing games? Insight tools can be used to gather feedback and evaluate the effectiveness of these gamification activities, allowing you to go beyond anecdotal evidence and determine the true efficacy of these new technologies. Monitoring these initiatives is an excellent illustration of organizational adaptability in action.

Conclusion

As you can see, technology plays a huge role in education and has an increasing impact. However, because many conventional teaching methods should continue to be used, it is essential to use technology in education properly. It is up to educators to create a balance between preparing students for the future and the good old-fashioned offline classroom. Also, school management needs to be more crucial about security while e-learning.

With the ever-changing landscape of information technology, the education industry must stay ahead of the curve to provide the best service for its students. This is especially true for K-12 schools, which must meet strict data security requirements to keep student data safe. Protected Harbor Consulting provides schools with the best of both worlds — high-quality data security and low-cost solutions. It is a comprehensive solution for all educational institutions to manage their IT infrastructure, software, and content.

Employing I.T. experts like Protected Harbor saves you much hassle. The solutions they offer can help you have a risk-free learning environment. Get a free IT Audit and learn how we support student success.

AWS VS Azure Serverless CRS/ Event Sourcing Architecture

For the past few years, serverless cloud computing has been the talk of the town, especially when it comes to resource efficiency and cost reduction. However, only cloud-optimized design patterns and architectures can make this achievable. The cloud is transforming how software is planned, produced, delivered, and used. It works by focusing on the development of small and independent businesses.
This article will examine the serverless CQRS and event sourcing architectures of Azure and AWS. Let’s get this party started.

CQRS and Event Sourcing Pattern

Command and Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) is a pattern that can be leveraged where high throughput is required. It provides different interfaces for reading data and operations that alter the data. CQRS addresses various problems. In conventional CRUD-based systems, conflicts can arise from a high volume of reading and writing to the same data store.

The event sourcing patterns are used with the CQRS to decouple read from write workloads and enhance scalability, performance, and security. Microservices replay events via the event store to compute the appropriate state. The event sourcing patterns work efficiently with the CQRS because data can be reproduced for a particular event, even if the query and command data stored have different schemas.

AWS Lambda VS Azure Functions

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service software executing code in response to a triggered event. It automatically manages all the computing resources for streaming regular operations without provisioning or managing servers. AWS lets you trigger Lambda for over 200 services and SaaS applications on a pay-as-you-go basis. It performs resource management, such as server and operating system maintenance, code and security patch deployment, automated scaling and power provisioning, code monitoring, and logging.

Key Functionalities

• Develop custom back-end services
• Automatically respond to code execution requests
• Run code without provisioning or managing infrastructure

Azure Function helps you accelerate and simplify serverless application development. You can develop applications more efficiently with a serverless compute, event-driven platform that helps resolve complex orchestration issues. Unlike AWS Lambda, Azure Functions provide multiple feature deployment options, including One Drive, KUdu Console, GitHub, Visual Studio, DropBox, and Zip,

Key functionalities

• Schedule event-driven tasks across services
• Scale operations based on customer demand
• Expose functions as HTTP API endpoints

AWS Dynamo DB VS Azure COSMO DB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database that provides predictable and fast performance with seamless scalability. It lets you offload the administrative burden of scaling and operating a distributed database without hardware provisioning, replication, setup and configuration, cluster scaling, or software patching. Moreover, it provides encryption at rest, eliminating the complexity and operational burden involved in protecting sensitive data.

Critical features of AWS DynamoDB include

• Automated Storage scaling
• Fully distributed architecture
• Provisioned throughput

Azure COSMO DB is a fully managed NoSQL database service for advanced application development. With CosmoDB, you can get guaranteed single-digit millisecond response times and availability, instant and automatic scalability, backend by SLAs, and open-source APIs for Cassandra and MongoDB. You can enjoy fast reads and writes with multi-region and turnkey data replication. Moreover, it provides real-time data insights with no-ETL analytics.

Key features include

• Fast, flexible application development
• The guaranteed speed at any scale
• Fully managed and cost-effective serverless database

AWS Cognito VS Azure B2C

Amazon Cognito gives authorization, authentication, and user management for your mobile and web applications. Users can directly sign in with a username and password or use a third party, such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple, or Google accounts. The two main components of AWS Cognito are identity pools and user pools. Identity pools let you grant users access to other AWS services, and user pools are user directories providing sign-up and sign-in options for application users.

Features of Amazon Cognito include

• Built-in, customizable web UI
• User profiles and directory management
• OpenID Connect providers

Azure Active Directory B2C is an identity management service enabling custom control of how users can sign up, sign in, and manage profiles using Android, iOS, .Net, and single-page (SPA). You can provide your customers with the flexibility to use their preferred enterprise, social, or local account identities to access applications. Azure B2C is a customer identity access management (CIAM) service capable of supporting millions of users and authentications per day.

Features of Azure B2C include

• Strong authentication for customers leveraging their preferred identity providers
• Integration with databases and applications to capture sign-in
• Customization for each registration and sign-in experience.

AWS API Gateway VS Azure API Management

AWS API Gateway is a fully managed service making it easy for developers to create, deploy, monitor, maintain, and secure APIs at any scale. These APIs are the “front door” for applications to access business logic, functionality, or data from backend servers. Through API Gateway, users can create WebSocket and RESTful APIs enabling real-time two-way communication applications. Moreover, it supports serverless and containerized workloads and web applications.

Azure API Management is a way to create modern and consistent API gateways for back-end services. It helps organizations publish APIs to external and internal developers to unlock the potential of their benefits and data potential. Each API consists of one or more operations, and it can be added to products. Today’s innovative organizations are adopting API architectures to accelerate growth. Moreover, it lets organizations build applications faster and deliver prompt value to customers using the API-first approach.

Conclusion

If you want to exploit the full potential of serverless cloud computing, all non-functional requirements should be known before developing an application. Know your business requirements and choose the right cloud service provider with the correct services and features. This prior knowledge will help you find exemplary architecture and design patterns and combine them. Software developers and software architects should give more thought to the event sourcing architecture in the case of distributed systems.

Protected Harbor is the market’s underdog player that consistently exceeds consumer expectations. It has endured the test of time with its Datacenter and Managed IT services, and all clients have said: “beyond expectations.” It’s no surprise that businesses prefer to stay with us because we offer the best cloud services in the industry and the best IT support, safety, and security. This is the road to the top of the heap.

The Top Books Every CIO Needs

World Book Day is a celebration of reading held every year on April 23. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organizes World Book Day, also known as World Book and Copyright Day or International Day of the Book, every year to encourage reading, publishing, and copyright.

In honor of World Book Day, Protected Harbor is celebrating by highlighting some of the top books every CIO and business owner needs on their desk. These books will help you stay ahead of the curve with their invaluable insights and advice on entrepreneurship to innovation. These are the books we trust. Curated by the system engineers and data infrastructure staff here at Protected Harbor, these books will help your leadership build a culture of excellence and empower employees to deliver extraordinary customer experiences.

C Programming Language By B. Kernighan & D. Ritchie

Commonly known as K&R (after the author’s Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie)- Richard describes this book as his first “professional” programming book – it made a complex programming language easy to understand, and that approach of communicating he still uses today.

World War 3.0: Microsoft and its Enemies by Ken Auletta (2001)

Richard says it was the first major battle with “big tech” before such a term existed. That book taught him the power of data and the internet revolution.

– Richard Luna, Protected Harbor Founder & CEO

In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters

Jeff says this is an engaging assessment of the business situation in the United States in the early 1980s. Overall, he is struck by anti-merger theories that promote simplicity, smallness, and simple shape. This is a classic business book.

– Jeff Futterman, Chief Operating Officer

The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

This book shows the importance of market disruption, and Nick was stunned. It explains how large, successful companies can collapse “by doing everything properly.”

– Nick Solimando, Director of Technology

Windows Server 2019 Automation with Powershell Cookbook

It’s a must-read for beginners-intermediate experienced, according to Justin. Working with these cutting-edge technologies demands knowledge of PowerShell, making it an excellent resource for System Administrators.

– Justin Luna, Senior Systems Engineer

The Cybersecurity Playbook –  by Allison Cerra

The Cybersecurity Playbook: How Every Leader and Employee Can Contribute to a Culture of Security is a wonderful book, according to Fasif. It covers all of the cybersecurity threats the sector is experiencing today and how to prepare. It is easily one of the most outstanding books on practical cybersecurity issues with root cause analysis, and it discusses strategies for preparing. I recommend it from cover to cover.

– Fasif VP, Technical Lead

Hands-On Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity by Alessandro Parisi

This book is highly recommended by Akhilesh, who has a great interest in AI and cybersecurity. It presents and shows popular and successful AI methodologies and models. You’ll learn about the role of machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning in cybersecurity.

– Akhilesh Sharma, Manager

Steve Jobs – By Walter Isaacson

This book is one of the most selling and recommended by thousands, including Sajir, who is inspired by Steve Jobs’ life and suggests this book to anyone looking for motivation and advice to focus on their work and achieve success.

– Sajir Ashraf, Manager

The average CIO spends more than 40 hours a week managing their team, constantly working on different projects, and juggling various tasks. When you consider all of the other responsibilities they also have, it’s no wonder they need an excellent book to help them unwind.

Here we recommend the best books every CIO needs on their desk. Whether you’re looking for a new book to add to your reading list or want to try something new, you’ll find a book recommendation for every reader on this list. From new releases to old favorites, these are the best books to read on this #Worldbookday. Grab a book, Celebrate World Book Day 2022 with Protected Harbor.

What is Supply Chain Attack? How to Prevent Them?

In this rapidly evolving threat landscape, cybersecurity has become essential. It has been described in simple terms of the trust, do not hand over credentials to fraudulent websites, and beware of email attachments or links from unknown sources. But sophisticated hackers undermine this basic sense of trust and find more robust ways to attack the supply chain. What if legitimate software or hardware making up your network has been compromised at the source?

This subtle and increasingly common form of hacking is called a supply chain attack. In recent years, most of the high-profile and damaging cybersecurity incidents have been supplying chain attacks. This article will dive deep into the supply chain attack, how it works, and what you can do to prevent it.

1. What is Supply Chain Attack?

A supply chain attack, commonly referred to as a value-chain of a third-party attack, occurs when an attacker accesses an organization’s networking by infiltrating a supplier or business partner that comes in contact with its data. Hackers generally tamper with the manufacturing process by installing hardware-based spying components or a rootkit. This attack aims to damage an organization’s reputation by targeting less secure elements in the supply chain network.

Supply chain attacks are designed to manipulate relationships between a company and external parties. These relationships may include vendor relationships, partnerships, or third-party software. Cybercriminals compromise an organization and then move up the supply chain to take advantage of trusted relationships and gain access to other organizations’ environments.

2. How does a supply chain attack work?

A Supply chain attack works by delivering malicious code or software through a supplier or vendor. These attacks use legitimate processes to get uninhibited access into an organization’s ecosystem. It starts with infiltrating a vendor’s security measures. This technique is much more straightforward than attacking a target directly due to many vendors’ unfortunate shortsighted security measures.

Penetration could occur through attack vectors. The malicious code requires embedding itself into a digitally signed process of its host once it is injected into a vendor’s ecosystem. A digital signature validates that a piece of software is authentic to the manufacturer permitting the transmission of software to all networked parties.

Compromised networks unknowingly distribute malicious code to the entire client network. The software patches facilitating the malicious payload contain a backdoor interacting with all third-party servers. It is the distribution point of the malicious software or code. A service provider could infect thousands of organizations with a single update that helps attackers achieve a higher magnitude of impact with less effort.

2.1. Example

Supply chain attacks allow attackers to infect multiple targets without deploying malicious code on each target’s machine. This increased efficiency boosts the prevalence of this attack technique. Here are some most common examples of supply chain attacks.

U.S government supply chain attack

This event is a pervasive example of supply chain attacks. In March 2020, nation-state criminals penetrated internal U.S government communication via a compromised update from a third-party vendor, SolarWinds. This attack infected up to 18,000 customers, including six U.S government departments.

Equifax supply chain attack

Equifax, one of the biggest credit card reporting agencies, faced a data breach through an application vulnerability on their website. This attack impacted over 147 million customers. The stolen data included driver’s license numbers, social security numbers, date of birth, and addresses of users.

Target supply chain attack

Target USA faced a significant data breach after hackers accessed the retailer’s critical data using a third-party HVAC vendor. Cybercriminals accessed financial information and Personal Identifiable Information (PII) that impacts 40 million debit and credit cards and 70 million customers. Hackers breached the HVAC third-party vendor using an email phishing attack.

Panama papers supply chain attack

Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca exposed over 2.6 terabytes of clients’ sensitive data in a breach. The attack leaked the devious tax evasion tactics of over 214,000 organizations and high-risk politicians. Law firms should be the most desirable target due to the treasure of sensitive and valuable customer data they store in their servers.

1. Impact of supply chain attacks

Any breach can be devastating, but a supply chain attack can be exponentially worse because the attacker usually has a high level of access to the network, which is hard to detect. This combination of factors highly increases the risk of a supply chain attack. The longer an attacker stays inside the target’s network, the more damage they can cause through ransomware, data theft, or other malware disruptions.

Supply chain attacks provide a criminal with another method of attacking an organization’s defenses. These attacks are commonly used to perform data breaches. Cybercriminals often manipulate supply chain vulnerabilities to deliver malicious code to a target organization.

2. How to Prevent Supply Chain Attacks?

Here are the tips to reduce the impact and risks of supply chain attacks.

• Determine who has access to critical data_ To manage complex footprints, organizations should map their third parties to data they handle for prioritizing risk management activities.
• Identify the assets at more significant risk_ Understanding assets more likely to be targeted, such as customers’ sensitive information or intellectual property, is crucial to preventing supply chain attacks. Security teams should monitor these assets using third-party risk management platforms, providing constant and fast visibility into threats within complex supply chains.
• Apply vendor access controls_ Cybercriminals look to access data using a path of least resistance to infiltrate an organization’s network through one of its suppliers. Apart from understanding the rights to access digital assets, organizations need to apply string perimeter controls for vendor access, such as network segmentation and multi-factor authentication. Service providers should only have access to the necessary information they require to provide services.
• Identify insider threats_ Whether due to lack of training, carelessness, or malicious intent, employees represent a considerable insider threat to information security. Targeting business partners or employees with phishing or social engineering campaigns is one of the standards and most accessible ways for cybercriminals to infiltrate a network. However, it is difficult to know when and how an attacker has compromised privileged access; a monitoring technology that can automatically alert security teams when a system gets compromised can help prevent supply chain attacks.

Conclusion

Protected Harbor enables businesses to take full control of their third-party security by constantly monitoring for vulnerabilities and data leakage that could be exported as part of a supply chain attack. Protected Harbor also helps organizations comply with a variety of security regulations, including the new supply chain criteria outlined in Vice President Biden’s Cybersecurity Executive Order.
Partner with Protected Harbor today to have access to more cutting-edge business and cyber security insights.

What are Cookies and Cache?

Introduction

You probably already know what cookies and cache are, but do you know what they do? Both are small text files saved by websites on your computer and mobile devices. They store information about your browsing habits and are used by websites to personalize your experience.

The purpose of cookies and cache is to speed up your browsing by saving elements from a website. It’s essential to clear the cookies cache after each visit. Otherwise, your computer might use the information stored to track you. The cookie may contain malware that can harm your privacy. This article will provide some helpful information about them. Let’s get started.

What are cookies and cache?

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small data file that a website stores on your computer for a predetermined period. These files can contain login data, browsing ID, location, IP address, time spent on a site, and preferences. Cookies help websites remember you. This allows marketers to display relevant ads when they visit a particular website.

What is cache?

A cache is a small file that stores information on a website. This is used to speed up loading pages when users visit a website. It also stores elements of a website such as content, design, etc. The cache can be used to track user preferences. Once a user has made a purchase, the store will save this information. This can help you customize and improve your shopping experience.

What’s the difference between cookies and cache?

Cache and Cookies were created to improve a website’s performance and make it more accessible by saving data on the client-side machine.

The primary distinction between Cache and Cookie is that Cache is used to save web page resources in a browser for long-term storage or to reduce loading time. On the other hand, cookies keep user preferences such as browsing sessions and track user preferences.

Although cookies and cache are both methods for storing data on a client’s machine, the two are not interchangeable and have different purposes.

• A cookie is used to save information to track various user characteristics, whereas a cache is used to speed up the loading of web pages.
• Cookies save user preferences, whereas cache saves resource assets like audio, video, and flash.
• Cookies usually expire after a certain amount of time, but the cache is stored on the client’s workstation until the user removes it explicitly.

Why are cookies and cache important to companies?

There’s a considerable probability that cookies and cache are already being used on your business website. Your website uses cookies if you use an automated ad platform like Google Ads, a content management system like WordPress, or any plugins or buttons that enable social media involvement.

• A shopping cart, a comment area, a login page that remembers your user ID, and the option to save preferences are all elements we take for granted. But we’d miss them if they weren’t around, and cookies and cache are what allow us to do so.
• Cookies are also commonly used to collect data for analytics. When website analytics applications, such as Google Analytics, compute relevant site performance statistics, they feed the process with raw data collected by cookies. It’s a way for site owners to learn how users found their site, how many times they’ve visited, how many and what pages they’ve viewed, and so on.
• Are customers arriving via pay-per-click advertisements, backlinks, or search engine results? Do they devote all of their attention to one product page while disregarding the others? Having such information is critical because it allows site owners to concentrate their efforts on the most significant traffic sources and web pages and optimize their marketing strategy.
• Cookies are also often used in automated ad targeting, showing users adverts based on their activity on your site or other sites. WordAds, for example, places adverts on each of your blog entries and tailors them to the user depending on information acquired through cookies.

How to Clear the Cache and Cookies in Your Web Browser?

One alternative is to delete all cookies that have already been set. Then you’ll be able to regain some control. It depends on whether you’re using a desktop or mobile browser. Users of Google Chrome and Firefox should consider installing clean cookies and cache extensions and using them to manage cookies, for example- cacheclean and clean all.

There are, however, manual methods.

To limit the number of cookies you receive, use the built-in options in each browser. Permanently block third-party/advertiser cookies, at the very least. Advertisers can discover methods around that easy option, so it’s not infallible, but it’s a start. On browsers like Firefox and Chrome, various plugins assist you in controlling cookies. For further information, see their web stores/repositories.

Conclusion

When you utilize cookies and cache on your website, you can give your visitors a more personalized and smoother experience.
They enable standard website functions like login and shopping carts. The user data they collect when tracking user behavior can be crucial for improving your marketing approach and engaging with clients more fully.

To ensure that customers’ cookie-collected personal information is not subject to unauthorized access, you’ll need to implement conventional security procedures.

How to ensure customer data safety?

Because hackers can try to enter into your site in various ways, it’s critical that a firewall protects it and that security monitoring is used to identify and remove malware and defend your site from all of the ways hackers try to break in.

Removing cookies and cache can help you mitigate your risks of privacy breaches. It can also reset your browser tracking and personalization. To help, Protected Harbor offers unmatched downtime, remote monitoring, protected desktop, and complete IT support.

Removing regular cookies could make certain websites harder to navigate and increase loading time. Without cookies and cache, internet users may have to re-enter their data for each visit. Different browsers store cookies in different places, so it is a hassle to remove cookies and cache and their usage permissions manually from time to time.

Protected Harbor ensures that your site doesn’t gather any data you won’t use, and you have a robust privacy and security plan without compromising the user experience. Partner with us and create a safety plan which works for you and your customers and always stay protected.

What is a Data Center Architecture, and how to design one?

Traditional data centers consisted of multiple servers in racks and were difficult to manage. These centers required constant monitoring, patching, updating, and security verification. They also require heavy investments in power and cooling systems including data center optimization. Data center architects have turned to the cloud and virtualized environments to solve these issues.

However, these cloud solutions are not without their own risks. These challenges have led to a new approach to data center architecture. This article describes the benefits of a virtualized data center and how it differs from its traditional counterpart.

Types of Data Center Architecture

There are four primary types of data center architecture, each tailored to different needs: super spine mesh, mesh point of delivery (PoD), three-tier or multi-tier model, and meshwork.

1. Mesh Network System: The mesh network system facilitates data exchange among interconnected switches, forming a network fabric. It’s a cost-effective option with distributed designs, ideal for cloud services due to predictable capacity and reduced latency.
2. Three-Tier or Multi-Tier Model: This architecture features core, aggregation, and access layers, facilitating packet movement, integration of service modules, and connection to server resources. It’s widely used in enterprise data centers for its scalability and versatility.
3. Mesh Point of Delivery: The PoD design comprises leaf switches interconnected within PoDs, promoting modularity and scalability. It efficiently connects multiple PoDs and super-spine tiers, enhancing data flow for cloud applications.
4. Super Spine Mesh: Popular in hyperscale data centers, the super spine mesh includes an additional super spine layer to accommodate more spine switches. This enhances resilience and performance, making it suitable for handling massive data volumes.

Fundamentals of a Data Center Architecture

What is a data center architecture?

In simple terms, it describes how computer resources (CPUs, storage, networking, and software) are organized or arranged in a data center. As you may expect, there are almost infinite architectures. The only constraint is the number of resources a company can afford to include. Still, we usually don’t discuss data center network architecture in terms of their various permutations but rather in terms of their essential functionality.

A data center is a physical facility where data and computing equipment are stored, enabling central processing, storage, and exchange of data. Modern data center architecture involves planning how switches and servers will connect, typically during the planning and construction phases. This blueprint guides the design and construction of the building, specifying the placement of servers, storage, networking, racks, and resources. It outlines the data center networking architecture, detailing how these components will connect. Additionally, it encompasses the data center security architecture, ensuring secure operations and safeguarding data. Overall, it provides a comprehensive framework for efficient data center operations.

Today’s data centers are becoming much larger and more complex. Because of their size, the hardware requirements vary from workload to workload and even day to day. In addition, some workloads may require more memory capacity or faster processing speed than others so data center optimization becomes necessary.

In such cases, leveraging high-end devices will ensure that the TCO (total cost of ownership) is lower. But because the management and operations staff are so large, this strategy can be costly and ineffective. For this reason, it’s important to choose the right architecture for your organization.

While all data centers use virtualized servers, there are other important considerations for designing a data center. The building’s design must take into account the facilities and premises. The choice of technologies and interactions between the various hardware and software layers will ultimately affect the data center’s performance and efficiency.

For instance, a data center design may need sophisticated fire suppression systems and a control center where staff can monitor server performance and the physical plant. Additionally, a data center should be designed to provide the highest levels of security and privacy.

How to Design a Data Center Architecture

The question of how to design the architecture of data center has a number of answers. Before implementing any new data center technology, owners should first define the performance parameters and establish a financial model. The design of the architecture must satisfy the performance requirements of the business.

Several considerations are necessary before starting the data center construction. First, the data center premises and facility should be considered. Then, the design should be based on the technology selection.  There should be an emphasis on availability. This is often reflected by an operational or Service Level Agreement (SLA). And, of course, the design should be cost-effective.

Another important aspect of data center design is the size of the data center itself. While the number of servers and racks may not be significant, the infrastructure components will require a significant amount of space.

For example, the mechanical and electrical equipment required by a data center will require significant space. Additionally, many organizations will need office space, an equipment yard, and IT equipment staging areas. The design must address these needs before creating a space plan.

When selecting the technology for a data center, the architect should understand the tradeoffs between cost, reliability, and scalability. It should also be flexible enough to allow for the fast deployment and support of new services or applications. Flexibility can provide a competitive advantage in the long run, so careful planning is required. A flexible data center with an advanced architecture that allows for scalability is likely to be more successful.

Considering availability is also essential it should also be secure, which means that it should be able to withstand any attacks and not be vulnerable to malicious attacks.

By using the technologies like ACL (access control list) and IDS (intrusion detection system), the data center architecture should support the business’s mission and the business objectives. The right architecture will not only increase the company’s revenue but will also be more productive.

Data center tiers:

Data centers are rated by tier to indicate expected uptime and dependability:

Tier 1 data centers have a single power and cooling line, as well as few if any, redundancy and backup components. It has a 99.671 percent projected uptime (28.8 hours of downtime annually).

Tier 2 data centers have a single power and cooling channel, as well as some redundant and backup components. It has a 99.741 percent projected uptime (22 hours of downtime annually).

Tier 3 data centers include numerous power and cooling paths, as well as procedures in place to update and maintain them without bringing them offline. It has a 99.982 percent anticipated uptime (1.6 hours of downtime annually).

Tier 4 data centers are designed to be totally fault-tolerant, with redundancy in every component. It has a 99.995 percent predicted uptime (26.3 minutes of downtime annually).

Your service level agreement (SLAs) and other variables will determine which data center tier you require.

In a data center architecture, core infrastructure services should be the priority. The latter should include data storage and network services. Traditional data centers utilize physical components for these functions. In contrast, Platform as a Service (PaaS) does not require a physical component layer.

Nevertheless, both types of technologies need a strong core infrastructure. The latter is the primary concern of most organizations, as it provides the platform for the business. DCaaS and DCIM are also a popular choice among the organizations.

Data Center as a Service (DCaaS) is a hosting service providing physical data center infrastructure and facilities to clients. DCaaS allows clients remote access to the provider’s storage, server and networking resources through a Wide-Area Network (WAN).

The convergence of IT and building facilities functions inside an enterprise is known as data center infrastructure management (DCIM). A DCIM initiative aims to give managers a comprehensive perspective of a data center’s performance so that energy, equipment, and floor space are all used as efficiently as possible.

Data Center Requirements

To achieve operational efficiency, reliability, and scalability, a data center setup must meet stringent requirements. The following are critical considerations:

1. Reliability and Redundancy– Ensuring high performance and uninterrupted services necessitates robust data center redundancy. This includes having redundant power sources, networking infrastructure, and cooling systems. Data center redundancy is crucial to mitigate the risk of downtime and maintain continuous operations.

2. Scalability– With data volumes growing exponentially, data centers must be scalable to accommodate future growth without compromising performance. Scalable infrastructure allows for seamless expansion and adaptation to increasing demands, ensuring long-term operational effectiveness.

3. Security– Data center security is paramount due to the sensitive information stored within these facilities. To protect data integrity and privacy, stringent security measures such as access controls, continuous monitoring, and encryption are essential. Robust data center security protocols help safeguard against breaches and unauthorized access.

4. Efficiency– Optimizing data center efficiency is essential for reducing operational expenses and minimizing environmental impact. Efficient energy use in data centers lowers costs and promotes sustainability. Implementing energy-efficient technologies and practices enhances overall data center efficiency, contributing to a greener operation.

By focusing on data center security, efficiency, and redundancy, organizations can ensure their data centers are well-equipped to handle current and future demands while maintaining high performance and reliability.

Conclusion

Data centers have seen significant transformations in recent years. Data center infrastructure has transitioned from on-premises servers to virtualized infrastructure that supports workloads across pools of physical infrastructure and multi-cloud environments as enterprise IT demands to continue to migrate toward on-demand services.

Two key questions remain the same regardless of which current design strategy is chosen.

• How do you manage computation, storage, and networks that are differentiated and geographically dispersed?
• How do you go about doing it safely?

Because the expense of running your own data center is too expensive and you receive no assistance, add in the cost of your on-site IT personnel once more. DCaaS and DCIM have grown in popularity.

Most organizations will benefit from DCaaS and DCIM, but keep in mind that with DCaaS, you are responsible for providing your own hardware and stack maintenance. As a result, you may require additional assistance in maintaining those.

You get the team to manage your stacks for you with DCIM. The team is responsible for the system’s overall performance, uptime, and needs, as well as its safety and security. You will receive greater support and peace of mind if you partner with the proper solution providers who understand your business and requirements.

If you’re seeking to create your data center and want to maximize uptime and efficiency, The Protected Harbor data center is a secure, hardened DCIM that offers unmatched uptime and reliability for your applications and data. This facility can operate as the brain of your data center, offering unheard-of data center stability and durability.

In addition to preventing outages, it enables your growth while providing superior security against ransomware and other attacks. For more information on how we can help create your data center while staying protected, contact us today.