Data Center 101: How Data Centers Work
A hands-on, visual introduction to how data centers are powered, cooled, secured, connected, and built into communities, based on PowerHouse Data Centers' briefing for WiMCO.
About this course
For complete beginners. You'll learn the vocabulary of N+1 and 2N, the 'nines' of availability, the power journey from grid to rack, the heat journey from chip to cooling tower, and metrics like PUE and WUE. Every unit uses the original slide diagrams, floor plans, and equipment photos, then puts you to work with games, quizzes, calculators, and role-plays such as a town hall with a skeptical neighbor.
Details
Skills you'll learn
Data center vocabulary
Use the language of the industry: hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, edge, white space, gray space, N+1 and 2N.
Reading availability
Convert nines of availability and Uptime Tiers into downtime per year and match them to a workload's needs.
Tracing the power path
Follow electricity from the grid through substations, transformers, switchboards, UPS and PDUs to the rack, and explain how backup systems respond to an outage.
Tracing the heat path
Follow heat from the chip through piping loops, chillers and cooling towers, and compare air, liquid, open-loop and closed-loop cooling.
Calculating efficiency and cost
Compute PUE, WUE and monthly power cost, and judge whether efficiency or utility rate moves the bill more.
Sizing redundancy
Size N, N+1 and 2N designs and test how each survives module and path failures.
Matching sites to workloads
Weigh power, water, connectivity, latency and community factors to recommend a site for a given workload.
Communicating with stakeholders
Explain data center design trade-offs to executives, visitors and neighbors in plain language.
Syllabus
7 units • 21 lessons • 7 projects • 7 assessments
Learning activities
Every lesson gives you several ways to learn.
Frequently asked questions
Similar courses
AI For All
A clear, honest, and encouraging tour through how AI actually works — and by the end, you'll have used it to build real things yourself, including your very own live app.
Money Stuff Nobody Taught You
The financial education you were supposed to get but didn't: how bank accounts, credit scores, taxes, loans, and investing actually work, explained plainly so you can make real decisions with real money.
Advanced Derivatives and Trading Strategies
Go beyond pricing formulas and learn how derivatives are actually used: to hedge real exposures, express precise market views, and manage risk at the portfolio level across options, futures, swaps, and exotic structures.
How to Interview Well (Even When You're Nervous)
Most people prepare for interviews by rehearsing answers. This course teaches you to prepare for the actual experience: the nerves, the curveballs, the moments you go blank, and how to come out the other side with an offer.