Stretching across Loudoun and Fairfax counties is an area in Northern Virginia, known as Data Center Alley. Large, concrete buildings dot the landscape, full of servers, which route 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic.
“When you talk about something happening online or happening in the Cloud, what you’re talking about is something that’s actually happening that’s powered by a physical data center. It’s actually a building,” explained Jon Hukill, communications director for the Data Center Coalition.
The average American household has at least 22 devices connected to the internet. They’ve expanded from phones and computers to smart TVs, lights, and appliances.
Our digital society creates so much data that massive storage facilities are now needed to process and house it all.
“Rather than have each individual business or individual internet user have their own server for their data, a data center aggregates all of our collective computing needs in one facility. And by doing so, that facility is secure, reliable, and more efficient,” Hukill tells CBN News.
While data centers provide a critical service, they also require a tremendous amount of electricity.
“It is not uncommon for a data center to require as much power as, let’s say, 25,000 homes,” explained
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