Chapter 4. Data Center Design Overview

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Types of server farms and Data Centers

• Data Center topologies

• Fully redundant Layer 2 and Layer 3 designs

• Fully redundant Layer 2 and Layer 3 designs with services

This chapter focuses on three main properties of Data Center architectures: scalability, flexibility, and high availability. Data Centers are rapidly evolving to accommodate higher expectations for growth, consolidation, and security. Although the traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 designs have not changed drastically over the last few years, stringent demands for uptime and service availability, coupled with new technology and protocols, make the design efforts more challenging and demanding.

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