Every day, all major enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) accumulate volumes of data. From customer relationship management systems (CRM) to sensitive company files, more and more data is being created on a daily basis—around 2.5 quintillion bytes, to be exact.
Tech giants like Facebook and Instagram not only have company data to manage; they also need to manage a database of the data created by their own users. To meet the growing demands of big data, more and more companies are turning to data centers. These remote, massive facilities have the means to safely store data for safekeeping. But to sustain their day-to-day operations, data centers require a lot of energy and resources.
One common problem for all data centers, for instance, is maintaining a cool, temperature controlled environment so that state-of-the-art hardware doesn’t overheat. To meet this demand, data centers need a lot of energy, but that’s where all the creativity comes in.
When it comes to designing data centers, architects try to use the surrounding environment to the best of their ability. Generally, three criteria are considered when prospecting a location for a new data center: Available land, infrastructure, and a viable workforce. Because data centers are resource heavy, it’s also common to design them so they’re environmentally friendly.
For example, Google’s data center in Homina, Finland repurposes the cold seawater from the Bay of Inland via a special pump to cool its equipment, and also uses an on-shore wind park to generate the energy needed to run the facility.
But that’s just one example of a truly extraordinary datacenter. To learn more about all the creative data centers out there, check out Varonis’s infographic below.
