What is a data center? A data center is a facility that utilizes large computer systems and associated components in order to house digital information found on the internet and servers from all over the world. In basic, without these data centers, we wouldn’t be able to save everything that is found on the internet or back it up.
So what do you know about these centers that are allowing you to have endless information at your fingertips? Let’s take a look at some interesting facts revolving around these information vaults.
- The Lakeside Technology Center is the largest data center in the world. The center has over 1.1 million square feet of storage capacity. It was originally designed to hold printing presses but was converted to data in 1999.
- One of Facebook’s data centers is located just south of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Instead of relying on giant expensive air conditioning units, Facebook utilizes the climate of the area to its advantage. Facebook uses the frigid outside air to cool its computers. This helps make the facility one of the most energy efficient data facilities ever built.
- Ironically some of the cooling systems used in data centers come from “water cooling”. We all know how electronics and water mix.
- Some of these data centers also seem to be indestructible. Modern data centers are built to withstand category 5 hurricane wind speeds and 9.0 earthquakes. So if you find yourself in a “Day After Tomorrow” situation, make your way to your local data center.
- According to Green Computing, a 7 year old data center is considered to be out of date. But the practical average age is is actually close to 9 years.
- A large data center has the potential to utilize as much electricity as a small town in the United States. Ever seen the movie The Prestige? Think about it terms of Tesla’s facility in the movie, and if you haven’t seen the movie go see it.
- Microsoft so far has spent in the range of $23 billion dollars on its data centers.
- Most data centers operate at temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees F. Yet according to recent studies this might be too cold. Many experts express that data centers should be operating at around 80 degrees F.
Well there you go a quick look into Data Centers. Pretty interesting stuff, especially once you know how necessary the facilities are. Our partner SEN Technologies recently chose DataSite as its data center for its award winning Freedom Cloud.