Data Centers

Extracted Attributes

• Purpose

  To house computer systems, telecommunications, and storage systems; support critical applications and data; enable delivery of shared applications and data.

• Key Components

  Routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, application-delivery controllers, redundant power supply, data communication connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression), security devices.

• Common Categories

  Onsite data centers, colocation facilities, hyperscale data centers, edge data centers.

• Historical Origin

  Roots in large computer rooms of the 1940s.

• Environmental Impact

  Significant electricity and water usage, strain on local power grids, increased electricity prices, implications for biodiversity.

• Estimated Number in US (2025)

  3,600 (with at least 600 being hyperscale).

• Global Electricity Consumption (2022)

  240-340 TWh (approximately 1-1.3% of global electricity demand, excluding cryptocurrency mining).

• Projected Electricity Consumption Growth (2022-2026)

  Could double.

Timeline

• Data centers have their roots in the huge computer rooms of this era. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1940s

• The first data center was built at the University of Pennsylvania to support the ENIAC, the first general-purpose digital computer. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1945-01-01

• Until the early 1960s, primarily the government used large mainframes housed in rooms that are now referred to as data centers. (Source: Web Search Results)

  1960s

• Estimated global data center electricity consumption was 240–340 TWh, or roughly 1–1.3% of global electricity demand (excluding cryptocurrency mining). (Source: Wikipedia)

  2022-01-01

• The IEA projects that data center electric use could double between 2022 and 2026. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2022-01-01

• There are an estimated 3,600 data centers in the U.S., with at least 600 being hyperscale data centers. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2025-01-01

• The rise of generative AI has dramatically increased the pace of data center construction. (Source: Web Search Results)

  Current

• A colossal buildout of AI Infrastructure, including Data Centers, is a key pillar of the US AI Action Plan. (Source: Related Documents)

  Current

Data center

A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for business continuity, it generally includes redundant or backup components and infrastructure for power supply, data communication connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression), and various security devices. A large data center is an industrial-scale operation using as much electricity as a medium town. Estimated global data center electricity consumption in 2022 was 240–340 TWh, or roughly 1–1.3% of global electricity demand. This excludes energy used for cryptocurrency mining, which was estimated to be around 110 TWh in 2022, or another 0.4% of global electricity demand. The IEA projects that data center electric use could double between 2022 and 2026. High demand for electricity from data centers, including by cryptomining and artificial intelligence, has also increased strain on local electric grids and increased electricity prices in some markets. Data centers can vary widely in terms of size, power requirements, redundancy, and overall structure. Four common categories used to segment types of data centers are onsite data centers, colocation facilities, hyperscale data centers, and edge data centers. In particular, colocation centers often host private peering connections between their customers, internet transit providers, cloud providers, meet-me rooms for connecting customers together Internet exchange points, and landing points and terminal equipment for fiber optic submarine communication cables, connecting the internet.

Web Search Results

• Data Centers and Local Environmental Considerations

  Data centers are physical sites that host the hardware, such as computer servers and telecommunications equipment, required for on-site or cloud data storage, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) computing. [...] There are an estimated 3,600 data centers in the U.S. as of 2025. Of these, at least 600 are hyperscale data centers, which are the most resource intensive and power generative artificial (AI) intelligence development and use. With more data centers being built to meet the growing demand of AI, cloud computing and digital services, local leaders are wondering what data centers mean for economic development and long-term sustainability in their communities. [...] The joint session was the first time NLC members engaged on this topic, and it was clear there is strong interest in continuing the conversation and learning more. The joint session raised both innovative thinking and significant concerns about data centers and the impacts they have on communities. Below are some of the key takeaways from that discussion: ### Local Governments are Balancing Technological and Economic Development with Data Centers’ Externalities and Environmental Impacts

• Explained: Generative AI's environmental impact | MIT News

  A data center is a temperature-controlled building that houses computing infrastructure, such as servers, data storage drives, and network equipment. For instance, Amazon has more than100 data centers worldwide, each of which has about 50,000 servers that the company uses to support cloud computing services. [...] While data centers have been around since the 1940s (the first was built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945 to support thefirst general-purpose digital computer, the ENIAC), the rise of generative AI has dramatically increased the pace of data center construction. [...] “Just because this is called ‘cloud computing’ doesn’t mean the hardware lives in the cloud. Data centers are present in our physical world, and because of their water usage they have direct and indirect implications for biodiversity,” he says. The computing hardware inside data centers brings its own, less direct environmental impacts.

• What Is a Data Center? - Cisco

  # What Is a Data Center? What is a data center? At its simplest, a data center is a physical facility that organizations use to house their critical applications and data. A data center's design is based on a network of computing and storage resources that enable the delivery of shared applications and data. The key components of a data center design include routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application-delivery controllers. ### Contact Cisco ##### Call Sales: [...] This evolution has given rise to distributed computing. This is where data and applications are distributed among disparate systems, connected and integrated by network services and interoperability standards to function as a single environment. It has meant the term data center is now used to refer to the department that has responsibility for these systems irrespective of where they are located. [...] In the world of enterprise IT, data centers are designed to support business applications and activities that include: ### What are the core components of a data center? Data center design includes routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application delivery controllers. Because these components store and manage business-critical data and applications, data center security is critical in data center design. Together, they provide:

• Data center - Wikipedia

  1. ^Old large computer rooms that housed machines like the U.S. Army's ENIAC, which were developed pre-1960 (1945), are now referred to as _data centers_. 2. ^Until the early 1960s, it was primarily the government that used computers, which were large mainframes housed in rooms that today we call data centers. [...] Data centers can vary widely in terms of size, power requirements, redundancy, and overall structure. Four common categories used to segment types of data centers are onsite data centers, colocation facilities, hyperscale data centers, and edge data centers.( History ------- [edit] Image 5 NASA mission control computer room c. 1962 [...] Data centers have their roots in the huge computer rooms of the 1940s, typified by ENIAC, one of the earliest examples of a data center.( 1]]( Early computer systems, complex to operate and maintain, required a special environment in which to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all the components, and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised such as standard racks to mount equipment, raised floors, and cable trays (installed overhead or under the elevated floor). A

• What Is a Data Center? - IBM

  As noted above, a data center typically has virtualized network services. This capability enables the creation of software-defined overlay networks, built on top of the network's physical infrastructure, to accommodate specific security controls or service level agreements (SLAs). [...] Most modern data centers, including in-house on-premises ones, have evolved from the traditional IT architecture. Instead of running each application or workload on dedicated hardware, they now use a cloud architecture where physical resources such asCPUs, storage and networking are virtualized.Virtualization enables these resources to be abstracted from their physical limits and pooled into capacity that can be allocated across multiple applications and workloads in whatever quantities they [...] ### Public cloud data centers and hyperscale data centers Cloud data centers (also called cloud computing data centers) house IT infrastructure resources for shared use by multiple customers—from scores to millions—through an internet connection.