Data center design refers to the process of modeling and designing all resources for a data center. The design should cover IT resources, architectural layout, and infrastructure. By reflecting the logic of the data center, redundancy, power and cooling efficiency, structured cabling, high-density deployments, and physical security are essential factors for the design process. The design concepts should be suitable for operational standards. Uptime Institute’s Tier Standard, ANSI/BICSI 002-2014, ANSI/TIA 942-A 2014, EN 50600 are essential standards that cover design, infrastructure, and implementation as one of the most popular standards Uptime Institute Tier Standard Certification is an industry standard for design, construction, and ongoing operations.
In general, it is possible to say that there are two main types of data center design: multi-tier model and server cluster model. In a multi-tier model, web server, application, and database are the three tiers used through a multi-tier approach. While resiliency balances the network traffic between the tiers, security places firewalls between tiers. Although a multi-tier model is the most common data center design, server cluster designs can also be used. Server cluster with Ethernet includes two-tier and three-tier models.