What Is a Data Center? Where Are Data Centers Located?

“Save your files to OneDrive,” “Save your document to the cloud,” “Upload your pictures to your drive.” When you do this, what does it mean? Where does it go? 

In a previous post, we talked about cloud data storage. It sounds mysterious — Where is the cloud? How can you store files in a cloud? The truth is that cloud data storage solutions use massive buildings full of electronic components that can hold, and store, your files for you. 

These buildings are called data centers. A data center is a huge facility that’s carefully guarded and temperature controlled so it can reliably, and safely, store your electronic files. In this post, we’ll tell you more about how data centers work, what companies use them for, and a bit more about how you can spot them in the wild. 

What Do Data Centers Do?

Data centers are buildings that store data at a much larger scale in a secure, controlled facility. But what is data?

When you buy a laptop or desktop computer, there will be a certain amount of storage inside the machine. This storage acts like a digital file cabinet where you can put your pictures, documents, and files. This storage can be found on your computer by selecting file explorer and then looking for your drives under This PC. A Drive is where computer data is stored. 

This is where your computer stores data. Your laptop or desktop computer is probably pretty small. The component inside your computer that stores data is even smaller. Imagine how much data a building could store if it were full of just data storage! Data centers are full of electronic components that store files and data. 

The companies that own data centers operate a service where other companies can use a certain amount of the data center’s storage in return for payment. If you’ve ever rented a storage unit, the same principle applies to data centers. You pay a certain monthly fee to use storage space that you don’t necessarily own. 

Sometimes, larger companies will even set up their own data centers just to store their own data. A company could, for example, build a specific room, building, or facility, that stores its own data. Other companies will rent out “data space” as part of their business model. 

Fun facts about data centers:

• The U.S. is home to the most data centers in the world: 5,375 according to DataCentre Magazine, which is more than the next nine countries combined. 
• The top 10 U.S. areas for data centers are: Northern Virginia, Dallas, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York Tri-State, Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami and Phoenix.
• The largest data center in the country is Meta Platforms’ Prineville, Oregon, data center, which spans 4.6 million square feet of space. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram(Dgtl Infra).

What Are Data Centers Used For?

Besides storing data, data centers can also be used like complex computers that can process information. A company may use a data center to:

• Store data
• Process transactions
• Handle servers (especially with online gaming)
• Machine learning
• Support HR functions

An analogy would be an office building. If a business rents out part of an office building, they get a certain amount of space to use to conduct business. However, an office building also has security, janitorial staff, and certain services that a business can take advantage of as part of the space they rent out. 

The services that a data center offers are the electronic versions of these services. If a business like a clothing store has a website, it may want its customers to be able to set up accounts. The clothing store may rent out a secure space in a data center to store customer usernames and passwords (as a simple example). When a customer enters the username or password, the clothing store’s website verifies that the customer has entered the correct information with the data center and then, if it is correct, lets them log into the website. 

Three of the largest data center providers in the United States are AWS (Amazon Web Services), Equinix, and Digital Realty. 

The communication between the company website and the data center may be part of that data center’s services. This makes it far easier, and attractive, for businesses to use that data center’s services. 

What Do Data Centers Look Like?

Data centers are large, temperature-controlled buildings that often look like normal offices or warehouses on the outside. A data center will usually have a lot of HVAC units to carefully control the temperature inside. If you’re curious about what a data center looks like on the inside, check out this video, Inside a Google Data Center. 

Data centers have racks that electronic components are attached to in rows. If you were to go inside a data center, you’d find rows and rows of these racks connecting with wires and cables. There’s usually space between the racks in case a worker needs to go and check on a specific electronic component. 

Computers use electricity to perform functions and tasks. The more complicated the task or function, the more electricity the data center needs. The problem is that electricity also generates heat. Just feel the side of your desktop computer or laptop, and you’ll find that it’s slightly warmer than the ambient environment. 

As data centers store, retrieve, and process data, they use more and more electricity. The heat generated can seriously damage the electronic components that the data center uses to store data. If a data center isn’t properly controlling the temperature of their facility, an electronic component they require may fail, resulting in an interruption to service to their customers or, worse, data lost. Imagine if a storage facility suddenly had one of its storage sheds fall apart or disappear!

Because of the concern over losing customer data, data centers usually have a lot of redundancy. If one storage drive fails, the data it contains is typically also located on another storage drive. This means that data centers have to be a lot bigger than you may expect. More advanced data centers will even have multiple potential sources of electricity in case one source fails. They may even have their own water reservoir to assist with cooling. 

Where Are Data Centers?

Some of the most common locations for data centers include:

• Dallas 
• Chicago
• Silicon Valley (Northern California)
• Virginia
• Ohio

A big part of running a successful data center is locating it in a safe place that doesn’t have dangerous weather conditions (flooding, tornados, hurricanes), has access to water, and is connected to a reliable power grid. 

As more and more complex electronic functions are executed, and more companies launch websites, cloud services, and store data, more data centers need to be constructed. You’ll start to notice more and more of these data centers over the next few years!

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