Inside The World's Largest Data Center

this millennium has seen the most advanced technological developments in human history and the latest shift towards cloud-based technologies has changed the landscape and forced companies to develop now more than ever vast amounts of data are being processed millions upon millions of pieces of information are being uploaded downloaded and stored each second switch is a company whose aim it is to grow the internet both intelligently and sustainably and with the opening of the latest campus it demonstrates it really does mean what it says globally the average data center has occupied a space of around a hundred thousand square feet but with the surge in demand for online tools particularly over this last year a hundred thousand square foot units are now considered to be small switch's latest offering places a 1.3 million square foot warehouse among many other large buildings in its 17.4 million square foot campus dubbed the citadel a name which hints at the tech giant's focus on security and innovation the park lies adjacent to tesla's gigafactory a company with which switch has worked alongside in order to bring a new lease of life albeit high tech to the desert the company's largest building tahoe reno one gained the title of the world's largest co-location center dethroning the 1.1 million square foot lakeside technology the site was expected to cost upwards of one billion dollars but after building everything from the ground up the cost quickly tripled a 500 mile network of fiber optic cables which the company calls it super loop links the bay area with los angeles the company's core campus in las vegas and the citadel dedicated lines serve the purpose of providing high-speed low-latency connections between all sites and the surrounding areas a 10 gigabit per second line extends from the citadel to the san francisco bay area with a super low 4 millisecond latency speed while similarly impressive speeds of seven milliseconds connected to the core campus and nine milliseconds to the city of los angeles this level of future proofing secures switch's role in the future of the internet the direct fiber connectivity services provided over the switch superloop were designed and constructed to support next-generation always-on applications with stringent service level agreements at wholesale price points the company promises the lowest connectivity costs while providing access to over a hundred cloud and managed service providers currently the company is working alongside some of the world's most prominent mobile providers including att verizon orange sprint comcast bt and telefonica working on such a large scale you may not be surprised to know that the citadel requires up to 850 megawatts of energy to power its hundreds of computers while reno one alone takes up around 130 of those megawatts what may come as a shock though is that switch runs the entire campus on 100 renewable and green energy it generates its requirements from a combination of solar and wind farms supported by geothermal plants at an equivalent cost of 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour these huge green credentials are partly thanks to its location had the campus been located in the bay area only an estimated 30 percent of its energy would have derived from eco-friendly sources and at a much higher price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour setting up outside the bay also saved the company an estimated 1 million dollars in taxes every tech refresh cycle the company now uses renewable energy at all of its data centers making it one of the most environmentally conscious tech firms on the planet in fact when subject to greenpeace's click and clean it sustainability report in 2017 switch passed with straight a's with the ngo noting the firm's commitment and leadership in energy transparency renewable energy commitment and siting policy energy efficiency and mitigation renewable procurement and advocacy the company's efforts have not been entirely channeled into its eco credentials though huge thought was given to the site's location and design such as its situation in a low risk area for natural disasters one of its most boasted features is the double roof system that protects it against winds of up to 200 miles per hour one of the very few elements with which it battles in the nevada desert its name has even been trademarked the switch shield leading power and cooling efficiency tackle the huge problem of high temperatures both from the countless computers within and the extreme temperatures that can occur outside while offices and conference spaces make up the facility too in total the complex was built on 260 patented and patent pending designs although guests can request a special guided tour of the facility and the company boasts about its eco-statistics there's one area that it prefers not to discuss and that's specific details such as logistics and other confidential information what we do know is that the police department is trained to deal with any instances that may occur in the complex something that requires a totally different approach to regular residential call-outs a breach to the citadel would likely be catastrophic owing to the vast quantities of data that are both stored in there and just passed through each day but then again maybe that's why the entire grounds are surrounded by a 20-foot high concrete wall and highly experienced security staff patrol the site 24 7 all of whom boast ex-military or similar backgrounds the site even has its own dedicated fire service which can deal with any breakouts in a matter of minutes reducing the impact of fire service call-out would have on local tax-paying residents anchor tenant to the world's largest data center is ebay which means anything you may have bought or sold on the online shopping platform as well as even looked at will have likely caused the citadel to fire up its processes and retrieve the information but when we say fire up we don't quite mean that because the site is fully operational every single day of the year 24 hours a day this is crucially important to neighbouring renowned health a major hospital network based in reno which occupies a significant portion of the computers president and ceo of renowned health dr anthony slonim explained that when evaluating where to place our most important patient and medical data we knew we had to have mission critical delivery of security the best reliability and 100 uptime there is nothing more important for us than the security and accessibility of the data that the switch ecosystem ensures is safe and available 24 times 7 times 365. he also mentioned the company's huge commitments to being environmentally friendly citing their 100 renewable energy commitment which embraces our own commitment to a healthier planet while the company is dedicated to the environment as well as its customers through next-generation technologies its other notable value is its commitment to engage with the community its work on projects that aim to link rural areas is admirable particularly those that focus on providing schools and healthcare facilities with better connectivity just three years after opening its doors tahoe reno one is already at about 80 capacity and if we know anything from personal computers running at 100 capacity really isn't good for efficiency and power management the global pandemic has caused a surge in our reliance upon cloud-based platforms driving demand for co-location services through the roof an annual revenue of 11 million dollars is expected to be generated by the company's commitment to a five megawatt growth split between its two western campuses the core and the citadel which means the growth of tahoe reno two has been accelerated the likely result of the ongoing pandemic will be that more and more people will be required to work from home a working pattern that was previously thought to have been inefficient but has proven to be as efficient if not more so in certain industries with this greater reliance on the internet and demand for faster and more stable speeds at an all-time high a future-proof design such as that adopted by the citadel and other switch data centers is key to success if your use of and reliance upon the internet has spiked recently have you been satisfied with the service provided maybe there are plans to open a data center near you or maybe you're already experiencing the huge benefits of the latest tech

Channel: VISION

Views: 424,200

Rating: 4.8133459 out of 5

Keywords: data center, server room, world's biggest data center, amazon data center, amazon server room, google cloud, aws, biggest data center, cloud, networking, network, internet, storage room, hardware server, servers, server, storage facility, data facility, google data center, cloud networking

Id: g7JaN3rTK2A

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/no-mad]

TL:DW; worlds largest data center