A Layperson’s Guide To Data Centers And What’s Next For Them

Data centers are becoming a major topic of discussion in political races, kitchen table conversations, and on social media. Ironically, many of those debates on social media likely rely on data centers. While many people are talking about them, many people may not have a full understanding of data centers. Here is a useful quick guide.

What Are Data Centers?

“In its simplest form, a data center is a physical facility that houses and runs large computer systems…. Contains multiple computer servers, data storage devices, and network equipment that can provide IT infrastructure service for organizations to store, manage, process, and transmit large amounts of data,” according to the Library of Congress website. “The increasing demand for data storage and processing capacities, especially for intensive computational tasks such as AI development and deployment, has led to construction and operation of hyperscale data centers,” The website went on to say. What is a hyperscale data center? It is one that has at least 5,000 computer servers, a large network of equipment, and covers at least 10,000 square feet of actual space. Such massive data centers also have a power rating over 100 megawatts. As a reference point, 100 MW of electric power can power 80,000 average homes in the United States, according to the Library of Congress document.

The key pieces of a data center can vary, but they typically include computational resources and servers, networking infrastructure, power and cooling capacity, storage systems, and some type of accessibility and security framework.

How Much Energy Do They Use?

The Future

Technology will definitely need to help us here, but we must not forget the people in these processes and deliberations.