Definition of Data Center

We define a data center as a special facility that performs one or more of the following functions:

• A data center physically houses various equipment, such as computers, servers (e.g., web servers, application servers, database servers), switches routers, data storage devices, load balancers, wire cages or closets, vaults, racks, and related equipment.
• Data centers store, manage, process, and exchange digital data and information;
• Provide application services or management for various data processing, such as web hosting internet, intranet, telecommunication and information technology.
  The types of energy efficiency strategies described in this site do not apply to facilities that primarily house office computers including individual servers associated with work stations as data centers.

Other terms used to describe data centers include: Computer center, data centre, datacenter, data storage and hosting facility, server farm, data farm, data warehouse, co-location facility, co-located server hosting facility (CoLo), corporate data center, managed data centers, internet hotel, internet service provider (ISP), application service provider (ASP), full service provider (FSP), wireless application service provider (WASP), telecommunication hotel (or telco hotel), carrier hotel, telecommuncations carriers, High-Density Electronic Loads (HiDEL), or other data networks.