Data Centers

• Data Centers are places, much like wear-houses, where millions of individuals Internet data is stored.
• Internet data consist of almost every interaction online, from e-mails to google searches. Information is sent from your local server to a larger network where that information is stored in a secure facility.
• The Internet is a real and physical entity, "the cloud" is Data Centers. Internet data or personal information does no just disappear, it is always somewhere.

" A data center doesn't just merely contain the hard drives that contain our data. Our data has become the mirror of our identities, the physical embodiment of our most personal facts and feelings." - (Andrew Blum, Journey to The Center of The Internet, 229)

• Data Centers are located all over the world.
• Ordinary buildings can and have been transformed to hold thousands of Internet users data. There is a perfect climate and environment for data centers, but the landscape of where these centers are built ranges from cityscapes to secluded rural areas.

• Newly constructed Data Centers are usually placed in areas that are dry, cool and safe from natural disasters. This ensures the protection of the data stored on servers, and the longevity of the Internet as a whole. However, older Data Centers commonly replaced preexisting communication infrastructure. An example being Data Centers that are running out of the same building that used to be a switchboard operator center.

• The map on the left shows four of the largest Data Centers in the United States. The flow map below features an arial picture and name of the same four Data Centers listed on the map.

"It [the internet] began to colonize places around the world-- indeed the places where it still predominately exist... The Internet has propagated to the point of becoming visible to the naked eye, becoming a real landscape all its own"(Blum, 56)

"According to a 2010 Greenpeace report, 2 percent of the worlds electricity usage can now be traced to data centers, and that usage is growing at a rate of 12 percent a year."(Blum, 230)

• Concern over individuals data being stored raises privacy questions. A major concern is peoples personal information being sold, stolen, or accessed in other criminal ways.
• To combat fears and anxieties around data security, many data centers appear to be normal buildings from the outside. This mundane appearance can trick the majority of the public to view the Data Center as a simple building, rather than a warehouse full of peoples personal information.
• Larger companies, such as Google, take very serious security precautions to ensure the safety of the data they store in their facilities. One of these safety measures include a 24 hour security check point to enter the campus where Data Centers are located. In the video below, a Google Employee explains Googles Secure Data Centers setup and functionality.
• Additionally, the protection and secrecy that is practiced by some Data Centers is in effort to keep information hidden from potential competitors.

• Without Data Centers our society would not be able to function as we do. Living in the Digital Age we rely heavily on the Internet to communicate, attend school, and connect with new people. Data Centers essential keep our world running. Without access to websites, emails, or other Internet based services , our everyday lives would be significantly impacted.

"...we must better understand the machines and networks that continue to powerfully shape our lives in ways that we are ill-equipped to deal with.." (McPherson, Race After the Internet,34)