Key characteristics of data center elements are:
1) Availability: All data center elements should be designed to ensure accessibility. The
inability of users to access data can have a significant negative impact on a business.
2) Security: Polices, procedures, and proper integration of the data center core elements
that will prevent unauthorized access to information must be established. Specific
mechanisms must enable servers to access only their allocated resources on storage
arrays.
3) Scalability: Data center operations should be able to allocate additional processing
capabilities (eg: servers, new applications, and additional databases) or storage on
demand, without interrupting business operations. The storage solution should be able to
grow with the business.
4) Performance: All the core elements of the data center should be able to provide optimal
performance and service all processing requests at high speed. The infrastructure should
be able to support performance requirements.
5) Data integrity: Data integrity refers to mechanisms such as error correction codes or
parity bits which ensure that data is written to disk exactly as it was received. Any
variation in data during its retrieval implies corruption, which may affect the operations
of the organization.
6) Capacity: Data center operations require adequate resources to store and process large
amounts of data efficiently. When capacity requirements increase, the data center must
be able to provide additional capacity without interrupting availability, or, at the very
least, with minimal disruption. Capacity may be managed by reallocation of existing
resources, rather than by adding new resources.
7) Manageability: A data center should perform all operations and activities in the most
efficient manner. Manageability can be achieved through automation and the reduction
of human (manual) intervention in common tasks.