The internet is nothing more than one massive, global network that almost every single functioning device in the world is currently a part of. But large amounts of the traffic that these devices generate needs to be stored safely, along with the countless terabytes of information that we collectively produce during any given day.
This is truly the age of information, and nothing is more of a testament to that than the incredibly huge data centres that can be found across the surface of the planet. These are modern, temperature-controlled structures that house endless banks of servers, all working together as one to provide different services to millions of people at once.
Data centres can be found in their hundreds, and all provide different services, whether it’s the data needed for scientific study, mobile apps, or a site with great tips for players looking to try something new.
Next Generation Data Europe
This data centre is actually one of the oldest in the world, having first being finished in 1998. It remains the largest of its kind in Europe and was originally a semiconductor factory before its conversation into a data centre. Inside, they operate over 20000 cabinets, all of which are home to a diverse set of services for their customers. The data centre can be found in Wales.
Tulip Data Centre
The Tulip Data Centre is based in Bangalore, India, and for a number of years it was the biggest non-US data centre on the planet. The facility’s construction began in 2011, and much of the design was in partnership with engineers from IBM.
Microsoft Data Centre
Microsoft is still the largest company in the world, and own data centres all around the world. But their main facility is the Microsoft Data Centre in West Des Moines, Iowa. They had been working on a new centre since 2014 and hope to have it completed by the end of 2021. It was be the largest yet for the company and will capable of holding hundreds of thousands of server cabinets.
Utah Data Centre
The Utah Data centre is a cybersecurity-related facility that cost around $1.5 billion to complete and was finished in 2014. The high cost of construction was due to a number of setbacks that cost contractors millions. Despite its shaky start, the data centre is currently up and running, and is capable of storing as much as 12 exabytes of data.
The Citadel
Currently still under construction, the Citadel is the combination of all previous data designs amalgamated into one. This will be the very largest of its kind, and will be powered by completely by renewable energy, similarly to the Tesla Gigafactory near to it. It’s set to be the world’s biggest and greenest data centre of all time. It can be found in Nevada, an area that’s popular for building important facilities thanks to its aversion to natural disasters, such as earthquakes.