If our telecom network of wire and cable is the veins of the internet then data centers are its organs and they are consistently growing in size and number—a pace that no one thinks is going to slow in the foreseeable future. When it comes to the placement of these digital warehouses, the criteria for locations are equally consistent with new sites often placed out in rural or suburban America. Despite the fact that pedestrians and residents may not have much to do with having a data center down the block, moving them closer to points of higher urban density could let us better utilize all of the resources it takes to run them. Continue Reading…
Archives For data center
Ten years into the new millennium the internet has become an extension of our consciousness, another bodily system we tap into through screens and keyboards that provides a level of connectivity as an ever expanding silo of information. Our proficiency with putting more content online can create the impression that the internet is infinite—a boundless expanse of ether that exists in the non-material plane holding a limitless volume of information in zero space. A black hole. But the truth is that our somewhat careless path of constant expansion online has physical repercussions that require large amounts of energy and take up space that is very real.