A data center is any location, accessible by members of an enterprise, that houses collected hardware and ancillary devices that can run internal networks, host digital systems and applications, or store data.
The traditional data center is on-premises, meaning that all of its functionality is contained in a physical site within enterprise office space. A data center might be a few computers under a desk, a climate-controlled room filled with blade servers, or a whole building. It is managed by an in-house IT team employed and paid by the enterprise which owns the data center.
Meanwhile, a cloud data center (or just the ‘cloud’) serves exactly the same purpose as the traditional data center, but is physically located elsewhere, often even distributed across multiple locations. While the CDC, like the traditional data center, forms the basal IT infrastructure for an organization, it is managed off-site by a third-party company or service provider. In this case, employees and shareholders do not typically see the hardware hosting their systems or applications in person.
| Traditional Data Center | Cloud Data Center (CDC) |
Location | On-premises, physically accessible | Virtualized, remote hardware |
Management | Internal, business’s responsibility | Outsourced to third-party provider |
Administration | In-house IT professionals | Employees of the service provider |
Reliability | Co-location makes failures dependent, onus is on the business for downtime and repairs | Provider is trusted to meet its promises of availability and reliability |
Pricing | Business pays directly for planning, people, hardware, software, and environment | Business pays per use, by resources provisioned |
Scalability | Possible, but involves challenges and delay | Completely, instantly scalable |
