We all know that our data is not stored in an actual cloud, and we know that our applications are not run from a collection of water vapor in the sky. But what is "the cloud?" Origins of the term used to refer to networked computers is somewhat debatable, and no one seems to really know for sure. Some say that the term "the cloud" arose from simplified drawings of networked computers like this:
Image courtesy of SmartDraw.
Others believe the term "the cloud" is related to the mathematical definition involving a large number of points in a coordinate system, which might look something more like this:
Image courtesy of Balaiyer.
Online applications actually run from facilities that look like this:
Image courtesy of Google.
The above image is of a Google Data Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa that provides 115,000 square feet of data center space. Since many data centers take up a lot of real estate, they are often located in rural areas in states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Oregon and Oklahoma. Facebook is planning to build a one billion dollar data center that will cover 1.4 million square feet in Altoona, Iowa. Besides affordable rural land, optimal data center locations also pose minimal disaster risks such as frequent flooding. While the United States still has the most data centers, many are looking to Iceland, Sweden and Norway for locating data centers due to the frigid climate and lower costs for cooling the server systems.
Most cloud-based services are not as huge as Facebook or Google, and their services are provided by shared data centers. While these data centers are often large, many companies share the technology. When server backup software is used to back up data to a cloud-based storage service, it utilizes these data centers. Data centers are required to implement high security standards that are often much safer than companies keeping their server backup files onsite. Since data centers are also required to always "be up" and running, this provides an additional security to companies that store data "in the cloud." In addition, many businesses are moving to cloud-based applications such as NetSuite to manage their accounting, or ADP to manage their HR requirements securely offsite. Some agencies that desire low-cost ways to add their own data centers, are using self-contained mobile data centers to add to their in-house computing power.
The demand for data centers is increasing exponentially. However, despite their size and computing power, they employ relatively few people. For example, there are five data centers planned for the Central College Business Campus in New Albany, Ohio, but they will employ only 26 full-time employees once the centers are complete. However, the reason some cities and counties offer incentives for data center creation is because they believe data centers may attract businesses that want to use the facilities. While many businesses use remote data centers, some still want access to data centers close by so that they can utilize the computing power without having to maintain the infrastructure.
The next time you upload a file to Google Drive or back up your servers to Rackspace, think about just where your data might be. There is no such thing as "the cloud" in a physical sense. Most likely your data is being stored in secure, georedundant locations in rural farmland areas of the U.S. This is quite comforting actually, since you know they are responsible for maintaining your data and you can trust that it will always be available.
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