While searching the web for articles I came across an article regarding Google and its increasing need for data storage, which I felt directly applies to various topics we have been discussing in class. The article, which I found in the technology section of business week, describes Google Inc's constant increase in demand for data storage. It goes over how major internet companies are expanding their IT capabilities, by building data warehouses internationally, in first rate locations in Nordic regions. The company sunk over one billion dollars in capital, to purchase the rights to use and renovate an old paper mill over seas in Finalnd, with the purpose of using it as a way to store it's User data. The mill is a hydroelectric system, buried about a football field's length beneath the "Lule River", and can produce as much power as a small nuclear reactor.
It only makes sense for Google to want to invest in these powerplants, because as it is these dams, provide an extensive amount of affordable, stable, and eco-friendly electricity. Due to the steady flow of electricity, and natural cooling properties of Finnish Fjords; these power mills make this is the prime location for a web kingpin such as Google, to establish it's power draining data warehouses, by eliminating the constant risk of overheating. Although, Google has officially made their investment, Microsoft is not the only one with their eyes on this prime location. Microsoft plans to spend to expand their range of data centers to support its ever growing cloud services, by investing over 250 million dollars to construct it's own data center in Finland, as a result of it's recent acquisition of Nokia company. After it's acquisition of an already major corporation, microsoft needs additional data centers to store the expansive amount of data it recently acquired, hence their plans to expand to these regions.
The article also mentions how Facebook, has been expanding its IT capabilities over the pasy year, by constructing data centers about seventy miles south of the Arctic Circle. The article states that as a result of its success with international companies, this region under the Arctic Circle has been named "Node Pole", because of the extensive amount of "nodes" (industry term for computer) in the area. It's wild to realize just how much data goes into sustaining a internet based company such as Facebook or Google in the year 2014. These data centers, are the storage centers that aid in the process of basic application functions, such as processing friend requests, likes, and profile picture changes.
The article proceeds to elaborate, on the history of the internet specifically, on the the location of where data centers used to be established in the past. Initially, data centeres were built intentionally near big cities, or financial capitals around the world; but as the need for data storage grows, so does the size of the data centers that support that need. This explains the current need for the expansion of industrial storage centers on an international level, to compensate for the growing amount of data storage, and cloud storage IT companies require. IT is apparent that, the recent infrastructure being built in the nordic regions, has been the most cost and performance efficient way to support this increase in need for data storage, strictly because Cloud computing has become so popular amongst IT companies. Surprisingly Sweden and other regions welcome the construction openly, the article states how it's military bases have been liquidated, and how the hydroelectric power opportunities, are equally beneficial for both the locals, and the companies looking to expand. In my opinion, I believe with the recent building of these data centers in Europe, these major companies have started a global trend for building cheap, clean, and efficient Data centers to reinforce the constantly expanding world of IT.
Article link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/scandinavia-draws-consumer-web-data-centers
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