Modern data centres have evolved to become precisely planned, interconnected ecosystems. They’re home to vast volumes of information that power businesses and drive innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). But a data centre’s performance is only as good as the systems supporting it. That’s where data centre application management comes in.

The key to ensuring smooth, responsive and resilient performance is efficient application management. It not only optimises IT assets but also strengthens security, reduces downtime and allows easier upgrading and scalability. In effect, application management helps software applications achieve their highest performance levels.

With practical application management, a data centre can offer maximised uptime, streamlined costs and an agile IT infrastructure. Combined, this paves the way for an organisation's digital success. Let’s learn how.

Understanding Data Centres

At its most fundamental, a data centre’s primary function is to store, manage and process the masses of data that our society produces. Recent forecasts show that by 2026, global data centre traffic will surpass a staggering 20 zettabytes. This growth is more than a trend — it tells the story of our increasing reliance on digital services for both work and leisure.

For that reason, it’s no surprise that as our reliance on digital infrastructure grows, so does the data centre industry. A brief description of key data centre design shows how a vast collection of IT equipment keeps up with demand:

Servers act as the fundamental cloud computing resource, carrying out computations while running applications and workloads.
Networking and connectivity equipment ensure data flows reliably with enough bandwidth to reach service level agreement (SLA) metrics.
Data storage devices save information for real-time reading or disaster recovery purposes. They ensure data remains accessible, reliable and secure.

Due to differing business needs, there are different types of data centres:

On-premises facilities are more costly for a business to build, offering control at the cost of scalability.

Colocation centres promote cost-sharing and scalability but might have limited customisation options for end users.
Cloud-based facilities allow high flexibility, albeit with potential data control and security questions.

The best choice of a data centre depends on your business priorities — from control to budget and regulatory needs. For many modern enterprises, combining private and public cloud services into a flexible hybrid cloud environment offers the best of both worlds.

Data Centre Infrastructure

At the heart of any data centre lies its infrastructure. Among the rows of IT resources are carefully designed hardware and systems that ensure operations run smoothly. Their key features include:

The power supply. To avoid costly power interruptions, data centres rely on uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems that bring immediate backup power if needed. This ensures operations continue, even when faced with a power outage.

Equally crucial is the need to keep data centre equipment in peak working order. Cooling systems help all components operate within optimal heat parameters to achieve critical energy efficiency and sustainability targets. They also help avoid equipment failure. Cooling strategies like air conditioning, hot and cold aisle containment, and even liquid cooling solutions help maintain optimal temperatures for each IT resource.

Data centre security is also key. Physical security, like access control mechanisms, ensures only authorised personnel enter the premises. State-of-the-art fire safety mechanisms safeguard both equipment and personnel in the event of an incident. Security equipment, such as firewalls and physical protections, allow for proactive protection of data, hardware and systems.

The foundation of every reliable data centre is its sophisticated infrastructure. Working together, these functionalities ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible.

Application Management Strategies

Application management is one of the most important aspects of data centre services. Its core role is to ensure applications run optimally, are consistently available and remain secure.

But — as we have already seen — not all data centres and applications are built the same. Various factors affect application management strategies. For example, the choice of deployment model directly influences application decisions:

Monolithic applications are built in single units. As such, they are straightforward to manage but can be tricky to modify, requiring changes to the entire application at once.
On the other hand, microservices application architecture splits functionalities into small, manageable chunks. This makes updates and tweaks straightforward — but demands coordination as a more complex structure.

Containerisation bundles applications with everything they need to run in any environment, making deployment much easier. This ensures consistency across platforms but also requires careful monitoring.

Thanks to strategies like containerisation and orchestration, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) ensures rapid, reliable, and repetitive software releases. Compared to monolithic software — often subject to buggy and irregular updates — these modern applications can eradicate manual errors while speeding up processes.

Of course, these more flexible architectures require careful monitoring. Security remains a chief concern. Various data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) tools help pinpoint weak spots in software, patch them and allow access to only authorised users.

Application Optimisation and Performance

Achieving high performance is a non-negotiable for almost all modern workloads. Data centres use several asset management techniques to help achieve this, for instance:

Load balancing ensures even distribution across servers to prevent overloads.
Caching stores frequently used data closer to end users, dramatically lowering retrieval times and network traffic.
Content delivery networks (CDNs) accelerate data delivery by serving from edge locations, improving load times and preventing bottlenecks.

Scalability is equally crucial. With strategies like horizontal scaling — where new servers are added — or vertical scaling, where server capacity is augmented, data centres can handle growing workloads without impacting performance.

Other improvements — such as database and content optimisation — mean data is stored and delivered as efficiently as possible. Ongoing testing then provides new opportunities for improvement, providing the best possible service management for future applications.

The Key Takeaways

Data centres provide the power for many key aspects of modern life. But, to perform at their most efficient, data centres must use several performance and change management techniques.

From database optimisation to frequent updates, application management impacts the entire journey. Data is stored and delivered to end users as efficiently as possible — all while promoting security best practices.

At Digital Realty, our data centres use the latest application management tools and techniques — helping your applications work to their full potential. Get in touch to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is application management?

Application management is the process of fine-tuning software applications throughout their lifecycle. It involves everything from design and deployment to ongoing maintenance, updates, and eventual retirement. The aim of application management is to help applications work at their best throughout their deployment.

What is data centre application management?

Data centre application management optimises the performance of software applications within a data centre environment. It combines traditional application management principles with data centre-specific considerations using tools like DCIM software. The goal is to match software performance with the underlying hardware to promote performance, security and uptime.

What are the benefits of application management?

Application management brings many significant advantages.

Ensures software consistently delivers peak performance.
Reduces system downtime.
Streamlines updates and patching.

These, in turn, improve user satisfaction and productivity. Some organisations may use application management to improve performance or security, while others use it to achieve cost savings or increased redundancy.

A Comprehensive Guide to Data Centres and Application Management