{"video_id":"1i8a24si74Y","title":"Different Types of Data Centres–and Why They Exist","channel":"Techquickie","show":"Techquickie","published_at":"2026-03-28T21:57:29+00:00","duration_s":673,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":5.72,"text":"Oh, the money in the data center. Yeah. Money. There's a lot of money. Open the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":3.64,"end_s":9.48,"text":"doors of a data center and Data center? Oh, data centers could Data centers Data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":7.72,"end_s":14.48,"text":"center, great. Yeah, data centers. Data centers. They've been dominating the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":11.6,"end_s":19.84,"text":"headlines. New builds, big expansions, and trillions invested. But, what rarely","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":17.0,"end_s":24.64,"text":"gets mentioned is that a data center isn't just one thing. They're typically","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.92,"end_s":29.12,"text":"set up in nine different ways, and there are a few unique distinctions that give","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":26.72,"end_s":34.64,"text":"each one an archetype. Kind of like the members of your favorite boy band, but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":31.44,"end_s":37.04,"text":"with less music and even more fan noise,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":34.64,"end_s":40.6,"text":"which is surprisingly the annoying sound that started it all. In the beginning,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.04,"end_s":45.88,"text":"uh it was really around enterprise data centers were the data centers, right?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.12,"end_s":49.72,"text":"And a lot of the times you used to hear about were rooms called like computer","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":47.72,"end_s":53.48,"text":"rooms or server rooms, and there wasn't even a data center, it was a let's put","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":51.56,"end_s":56.88,"text":"all of our, you know, servers inside of one room so that all those fan noise and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":55.28,"end_s":60.08,"text":"all that heat can be shoved into the one room, and we don't have to have that on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":58.44,"end_s":62.8,"text":"our office floor. Well, that transitioned into, well, we want to make","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":61.8,"end_s":66.32,"text":"sure these servers are running efficiently, and this room's super hot,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":64.879,"end_s":70.32,"text":"we need purpose-built air conditioning, etc. Let's make sure we've got power","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":68.2,"end_s":74.16,"text":"reliability, and all of a sudden you've got the like the the primitive makings","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":72.04,"end_s":77.44,"text":"of a data center, and every enterprise, every business in the world kind of ran","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":75.88,"end_s":81.96,"text":"their own set of servers inside of their own office building. Like John said,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.68,"end_s":86.64,"text":"enterprise data centers are where it all began, the founding member of the band,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":84.6,"end_s":90.8,"text":"so to speak. These are run by one company for its own use. Think banks or","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":89.24,"end_s":95.28,"text":"big retailers. Since they want to keep their data secure and meet all of their","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":93.04,"end_s":100.48,"text":"regulatory compliance rules. While enterprise data storage may have started","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":97.44,"end_s":102.52,"text":"small, today these operations tend to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":100.48,"end_s":108.0,"text":"bigger, and that's in part because there are more options now, like colocation","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":105.64,"end_s":112.08,"text":"data centers. These are places that rent out space for companies to put the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":109.72,"end_s":116.0,"text":"servers that they own. A great choice for medium-sized businesses. For a lot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":114.32,"end_s":119.08,"text":"of companies nowadays, you know, when you're a small like, you know, you're a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":117.36,"end_s":122.44,"text":"startup or you're you're a small enterprise or like, you know, a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":120.8,"end_s":127.04,"text":"home business or like that, a lot of folks just use the cloud, right? But once you get to the point where it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":124.72,"end_s":130.88,"text":"like, \"Ah, I I've got probably, you know, a five five-digit kind of monthly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":129.679,"end_s":135.72,"text":"cloud bill or something like that.\" That, you know, you start thinking buying a server isn't that expensive.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.0,"end_s":139.2,"text":"Let me see Let me look at the economics of that and and maybe become a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":137.04,"end_s":143.52,"text":"colocation customer. Colocation data centers help an organization save money","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":141.52,"end_s":147.52,"text":"while allowing them to keep control over their gear. That means, though, that the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":145.959,"end_s":151.8,"text":"customer is still responsible for configuring, maintaining, and upgrading","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":149.56,"end_s":156.28,"text":"their own hardware and software. Now, if that sounds icky, you may prefer the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":153.959,"end_s":161.76,"text":"next level, managed services data centers. In these, a service provider,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":158.8,"end_s":165.48,"text":"like Equinix or OVH, not only houses your rack, but also handles the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":163.52,"end_s":170.4,"text":"day-to-day running and upkeep of your infrastructure. But, of course,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":167.88,"end_s":175.76,"text":"that'll cost you. Cloud data centers are the mysterious bad boy of the data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":172.76,"end_s":178.24,"text":"center boy band, remote and occasionally","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":175.76,"end_s":183.8,"text":"unavailable for reasons no one fully explains. They're so misunderstood. Who","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":181.44,"end_s":188.16,"text":"is he? These data centers are all about giving you computing power over the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":185.84,"end_s":192.519,"text":"internet, handled by enormous providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":190.4,"end_s":197.16,"text":"Azure. Not only do you not own the computer, you might not even be using a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":194.959,"end_s":200.16,"text":"whole computer. If you think of a cloud data center,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":198.519,"end_s":205.44,"text":"uh there's again, it's a large centralized facility. Uh typically uh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":203.44,"end_s":208.92,"text":"operates 24/7. And it's filled with what I would call","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.12,"end_s":214.0,"text":"computing infrastructure. Everything from servers to storage systems to sort","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":211.68,"end_s":218.36,"text":"of the network equipment. We literally create subsets of of virtual machines in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":216.239,"end_s":222.48,"text":"a process called virtualization. And what that does is it allows, you know,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.8,"end_s":226.84,"text":"one computer to act like maybe 10 computers as needed. At the other time,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":224.68,"end_s":230.44,"text":"it allows 10 computers to act like one. And that's the notion of elasticity that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":228.76,"end_s":235.28,"text":"that, you know, we we we we talk about where you know, whole unit can can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":232.72,"end_s":239.96,"text":"operate as one or a subset of a unit can split up uh into a variety of different","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":237.52,"end_s":245.44,"text":"components and that allows uh you know, depending on on the ask or or the nature","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":242.08,"end_s":247.28,"text":"of um of of what's being processed,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":245.44,"end_s":251.52,"text":"uh it it can it can operate with with with intent. Like Chris mentioned,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":249.32,"end_s":256.359,"text":"elasticity is a cloud data center's secret weapon. It's the system's ability","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.959,"end_s":260.799,"text":"to adaptively allocate its resources as needed. Think of companies like Netflix,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.6,"end_s":265.12,"text":"which mainly uses Amazon's cloud data centers, so they can easily grow or","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":262.76,"end_s":271.56,"text":"shrink streaming capacity depending on how many subscribers are watching Love","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":267.4,"end_s":273.24,"text":"is Blind, Secret Island, Getaway,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":271.56,"end_s":277.68,"text":"Couples Forever. While cloud data centers can be any","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":275.68,"end_s":282.84,"text":"size, they're typically in huge compounds called hyperscale data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":279.919,"end_s":287.68,"text":"centers. These expansive data facilities are used by giants like Google and Meta,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":285.68,"end_s":292.64,"text":"and they're also taking off because of the AI boom. A standard hyperscale data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":290.72,"end_s":298.8,"text":"center typically contains a minimum of 5,000 servers, 500 cabinets, and spans","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":296.08,"end_s":303.24,"text":"at least 10,000 square feet or about a quarter acre of floor space. But,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":301.52,"end_s":307.76,"text":"they're still getting larger all the time with Microsoft's latest Fairwater","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":305.64,"end_s":312.16,"text":"data center in Wisconsin taking up an enormous 315","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":309.72,"end_s":316.0,"text":"acres and counting. Bear in mind though that hyperscale isn't a completely","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":314.48,"end_s":320.6,"text":"separate kind of data center, it's a size and design label. You'll hear about","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":318.68,"end_s":324.28,"text":"folks talk about hyperscale data centers and you can think about a hyperscale","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":321.76,"end_s":327.8,"text":"data center as a hyperscaler operating a data center that's entirely","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.76,"end_s":331.28,"text":"purpose-built generally for themselves, right? So, one, they'll either","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":329.32,"end_s":335.2,"text":"self-build that or they'll kind of uh lease that from a provider, and they","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.12,"end_s":339.28,"text":"want to have that full dedicated uh region and that could be for their cloud","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":337.08,"end_s":343.36,"text":"availability zones, it could be for AI training nowadays, it could be for, you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":341.48,"end_s":347.08,"text":"know, their their SaaS applications that they're delivering to customers. Uh Uh","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":345.08,"end_s":350.84,"text":"it could be for ad analytics for instance. I mean, Meta's obviously got","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":348.92,"end_s":354.24,"text":"huge amounts of data center capacity, and that's just for them, right? They're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.28,"end_s":359.88,"text":"not operating cloud services for anyone else. On the opposite side of the size","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":357.0,"end_s":363.92,"text":"spectrum, edge data centers usually have a smaller footprint that fits right in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":361.76,"end_s":367.28,"text":"the thick of a business's work. But today, they're more often thought of as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":365.76,"end_s":371.0,"text":"just data centers that are located closer to where people actually use","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":369.0,"end_s":376.28,"text":"their services, like on the edge of a city. This lets things happen faster","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":373.72,"end_s":381.56,"text":"with less latency. These kinds of data centers are thriving right now, too. Not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":379.12,"end_s":386.88,"text":"exactly Harry Styles level fame, like hyperscale cloud centers, but definitely","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":383.84,"end_s":388.36,"text":"in the Zayn camp. Telecom companies use","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":386.88,"end_s":392.56,"text":"them for things like streaming or gaming, but they're also powering","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.919,"end_s":396.68,"text":"robotics, physical AI, and systems that need real-time processing. What we think","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":394.76,"end_s":400.6,"text":"about as as edge is really like kind of like almost a converged edge, which is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":398.84,"end_s":404.52,"text":"close enough that all of the applications, like even things that feel","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":402.6,"end_s":408.88,"text":"pretty real-time, like video and and streaming analytics, they can happen","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":406.4,"end_s":412.919,"text":"within kind of a 10-ms radius. That's pretty close to as as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":411.04,"end_s":417.36,"text":"as close to the end user as you need to be without actually being on the device","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":415.04,"end_s":421.8,"text":"or like on the factory floor or in the vehicle. You can probably sense by now","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":419.64,"end_s":426.08,"text":"that these different types can be used in combination with each other, like a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":423.88,"end_s":431.04,"text":"tight three-part harmony. For example, OpenAI generally uses a giant hyperscale","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":429.04,"end_s":436.16,"text":"campus full of cloud data centers to power its AI, but they teamed with a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":433.36,"end_s":440.68,"text":"company named Armada to deliver edge AI to remote industrial sites in form","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":438.28,"end_s":445.6,"text":"factors as small as a single shipping container. These smaller units are also","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":442.84,"end_s":449.52,"text":"known as modular data center. Even within a single data center, there can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":447.36,"end_s":453.44,"text":"still be various types of server racks that allow a single building or campus","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":451.24,"end_s":457.6,"text":"to act in many different ways, which brings us to the more niche, perhaps","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":455.36,"end_s":461.16,"text":"even buzzwordy types of data centers, which we'll cover right after this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.0,"end_s":464.44,"text":"message from our sponsor. War Thunder, it's the comprehensive vehicle combat","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":463.12,"end_s":468.32,"text":"game available on PC, mobile, PlayStation, and Xbox. There's thousands","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":466.76,"end_s":473.0,"text":"of combat vehicles for you to choose from and pilot on the battlefield. War","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":471.08,"end_s":476.92,"text":"Thunder is known for its authenticity and immersion. All of the vehicles you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":474.84,"end_s":481.2,"text":"can take control of are real-life machines all throughout history from","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":478.92,"end_s":484.72,"text":"countries all over the world. So, join over 95 million other players for free","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":483.52,"end_s":490.92,"text":"today by using our link in the description and we'll even hook you up with a massive bonus pack if you sign up","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":487.96,"end_s":494.4,"text":"today. What? Yeah. Hey, here's a couple new kids on the block getting a lot of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":492.48,"end_s":499.36,"text":"attention since AI started shaking things up. High performance, high","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":496.48,"end_s":503.4,"text":"density, and sovereign data centers. High performance/high density data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":501.4,"end_s":507.28,"text":"centers draw a lot of energy since they're typically installed in giant","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":505.24,"end_s":511.04,"text":"hyperscale sites and pack as much compute as possible in each server","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":509.44,"end_s":515.32,"text":"stack. A recent report from the International Energy Agency states that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":513.12,"end_s":520.44,"text":"in the past, a typical data center would consume between 5 and 10 MW of energy.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":518.56,"end_s":525.96,"text":"While the new high density hyperscale projects can push upwards of 100 MW. And","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":523.88,"end_s":531.36,"text":"to put that into perspective, a single MW hour is enough energy to supply","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":528.24,"end_s":534.0,"text":"roughly 300 homes for a full day. High","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":531.36,"end_s":538.68,"text":"density centers are inherently also high power, but not all high power data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":536.44,"end_s":541.88,"text":"centers are high density. If you're confused, it's okay, stick with me here.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":540.28,"end_s":546.88,"text":"Like the boy band references in this video, they're fading fast. But one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":544.04,"end_s":550.92,"text":"example of high power, low density would be something like vintage geographical","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":548.88,"end_s":554.92,"text":"weather gear which can draw a ton of power, but the hardware needs to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":552.88,"end_s":559.0,"text":"spread out since they generate so much heat. Don't expect to hear lots about","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":557.28,"end_s":563.76,"text":"these unless they're being retrofitted to pack in modern servers with more","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":560.8,"end_s":567.76,"text":"density. Finally, there's sovereign data centers. These are having a bit of a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":565.92,"end_s":571.64,"text":"moment right now and they can take the form of pretty much every type we've","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":569.76,"end_s":575.44,"text":"mentioned already. They're popping up as governments and businesses realize that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":573.56,"end_s":580.24,"text":"to control their data, it needs to be stored in a place where their local laws","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":577.36,"end_s":584.48,"text":"provide jurisdiction. That said, this can get murky. For instance, US","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":582.48,"end_s":589.44,"text":"companies operating in Canadian data centers are not safe from US government","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":587.04,"end_s":594.0,"text":"interference. For full sovereignty, you need the data center and the company","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":591.0,"end_s":596.32,"text":"operating under the same flag. So, those","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":594.0,"end_s":600.24,"text":"are the types, such as they are, but that's not the only way to categorize","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":597.96,"end_s":605.0,"text":"data centers. Another is the Uptime Institute's tier system. It ranks data","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":602.76,"end_s":609.24,"text":"centers from tier one at the bottom to tier four at the top, based on things","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":607.04,"end_s":612.64,"text":"like uptime, which means how long the system has been running without","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":610.28,"end_s":616.68,"text":"interruptions, redundancy, and how well they handle failures. And basically, it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":615.08,"end_s":620.64,"text":"looks at four tiers. It looks at, you know, things like your availability,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":619.32,"end_s":624.56,"text":"making sure that you've got available power that's consistent to process up to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":622.92,"end_s":628.88,"text":"the maximum that you're you're allowed to process, cuz typically there's peaks","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":626.52,"end_s":632.32,"text":"and valleys in in consumption as well. It looks at redundancy, which means if","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":630.48,"end_s":635.36,"text":"one of these things fail, if your power fails, then what's your backup? If your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":634.08,"end_s":639.16,"text":"cooling system fails, what's your backup? If, you know, your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":637.12,"end_s":642.32,"text":"part of your IT infrastructure or your or your chips and servers go down,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":640.76,"end_s":646.04,"text":"what's your backup? It also looks at fault fault tolerance.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":644.32,"end_s":649.839,"text":"So, things like, you know, how often does do these things have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":648.32,"end_s":653.44,"text":"errors, etc. You know, what's what's in the manufacturer's specs and and how are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":651.8,"end_s":657.72,"text":"they performing? In some ways, I would call it a bit of an audit. What Chris","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":655.52,"end_s":662.08,"text":"told us is basically the checklist data centers live and die by. Power, backups,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":660.64,"end_s":666.04,"text":"backups for the backups, and then backups for those, too. If you want to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":664.32,"end_s":670.16,"text":"get a little more up close and personal with a data center, check out this video","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":667.68,"end_s":674.04,"text":"of Linus touring one, and drop a comment if you can guess what type it is.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"Oh, the money in the data center. Yeah. Money. There's a lot of money. Open the doors of a data center and Data center? Oh, data centers could Data centers Data center, great. Yeah, data centers. Data centers. They've been dominating the headlines. New builds, big expansions, and trillions invested. But, what rarely gets mentioned is that a data center isn't just one thing. They're typically set up in nine different ways, and there are a few unique distinctions that give each one an archetype. Kind of like the members of your favorite boy band, but with less music and even more fan noise, which is surprisingly the annoying sound that started it all. In the beginning, uh it was really around enterprise data centers were the data centers, right? And a lot of the times you used to hear about were rooms called like computer rooms or server rooms, and there wasn't even a data center, it was a let's put all of our, you know, servers inside of one room so that all those fan noise and all that heat can be shoved into the one room, and we don't have to have that on our office floor. Well, that transitioned into, well, we want to make sure these servers are running efficiently, and this room's super hot, we need purpose-built air conditioning, etc. Let's make sure we've got power reliability, and all of a sudden you've got the like the the primitive makings of a data center, and every enterprise, every business in the world kind of ran their own set of servers inside of their own office building. Like John said, enterprise data centers are where it all began, the founding member of the band, so to speak. These are run by one company for its own use. Think banks or big retailers. Since they want to keep their data secure and meet all of their regulatory compliance rules. While enterprise data storage may have started small, today these operations tend to be bigger, and that's in part because there are more options now, like colocation data centers. These are places that rent out space for companies to put the servers that they own. A great choice for medium-sized businesses. For a lot of companies nowadays, you know, when you're a small like, you know, you're a startup or you're you're a small enterprise or like, you know, a home business or like that, a lot of folks just use the cloud, right? But once you get to the point where it's like, \"Ah, I I've got probably, you know, a five five-digit kind of monthly cloud bill or something like that.\" That, you know, you start thinking buying a server isn't that expensive. Let me see Let me look at the economics of that and and maybe become a colocation customer. Colocation data centers help an organization save money while allowing them to keep control over their gear. That means, though, that the customer is still responsible for configuring, maintaining, and upgrading their own hardware and software. Now, if that sounds icky, you may prefer the next level, managed services data centers. In these, a service provider, like Equinix or OVH, not only houses your rack, but also handles the day-to-day running and upkeep of your infrastructure. But, of course, that'll cost you. Cloud data centers are the mysterious bad boy of the data center boy band, remote and occasionally unavailable for reasons no one fully explains. They're so misunderstood. Who is he? These data centers are all about giving you computing power over the internet, handled by enormous providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Not only do you not own the computer, you might not even be using a whole computer. If you think of a cloud data center, uh there's again, it's a large centralized facility. Uh typically uh operates 24/7. And it's filled with what I would call computing infrastructure. Everything from servers to storage systems to sort of the network equipment. We literally create subsets of of virtual machines in a process called virtualization. And what that does is it allows, you know, one computer to act like maybe 10 computers as needed. At the other time, it allows 10 computers to act like one. And that's the notion of elasticity that that, you know, we we we we talk about where you know, whole unit can can operate as one or a subset of a unit can split up uh into a variety of different components and that allows uh you know, depending on on the ask or or the nature of um of of what's being processed, uh it it can it can operate with with with intent. Like Chris mentioned, elasticity is a cloud data center's secret weapon. It's the system's ability to adaptively allocate its resources as needed. Think of companies like Netflix, which mainly uses Amazon's cloud data centers, so they can easily grow or shrink streaming capacity depending on how many subscribers are watching Love is Blind, Secret Island, Getaway, Couples Forever. While cloud data centers can be any size, they're typically in huge compounds called hyperscale data centers. These expansive data facilities are used by giants like Google and Meta, and they're also taking off because of the AI boom. A standard hyperscale data center typically contains a minimum of 5,000 servers, 500 cabinets, and spans at least 10,000 square feet or about a quarter acre of floor space. But, they're still getting larger all the time with Microsoft's latest Fairwater data center in Wisconsin taking up an enormous 315 acres and counting. Bear in mind though that hyperscale isn't a completely separate kind of data center, it's a size and design label. You'll hear about folks talk about hyperscale data centers and you can think about a hyperscale data center as a hyperscaler operating a data center that's entirely purpose-built generally for themselves, right? So, one, they'll either self-build that or they'll kind of uh lease that from a provider, and they want to have that full dedicated uh region and that could be for their cloud availability zones, it could be for AI training nowadays, it could be for, you know, their their SaaS applications that they're delivering to customers. Uh Uh it could be for ad analytics for instance. I mean, Meta's obviously got huge amounts of data center capacity, and that's just for them, right? They're not operating cloud services for anyone else. On the opposite side of the size spectrum, edge data centers usually have a smaller footprint that fits right in the thick of a business's work. But today, they're more often thought of as just data centers that are located closer to where people actually use their services, like on the edge of a city. This lets things happen faster with less latency. These kinds of data centers are thriving right now, too. Not exactly Harry Styles level fame, like hyperscale cloud centers, but definitely in the Zayn camp. Telecom companies use them for things like streaming or gaming, but they're also powering robotics, physical AI, and systems that need real-time processing. What we think about as as edge is really like kind of like almost a converged edge, which is close enough that all of the applications, like even things that feel pretty real-time, like video and and streaming analytics, they can happen within kind of a 10-ms radius. That's pretty close to as as as close to the end user as you need to be without actually being on the device or like on the factory floor or in the vehicle. You can probably sense by now that these different types can be used in combination with each other, like a tight three-part harmony. For example, OpenAI generally uses a giant hyperscale campus full of cloud data centers to power its AI, but they teamed with a company named Armada to deliver edge AI to remote industrial sites in form factors as small as a single shipping container. These smaller units are also known as modular data center. Even within a single data center, there can still be various types of server racks that allow a single building or campus to act in many different ways, which brings us to the more niche, perhaps even buzzwordy types of data centers, which we'll cover right after this message from our sponsor. War Thunder, it's the comprehensive vehicle combat game available on PC, mobile, PlayStation, and Xbox. There's thousands of combat vehicles for you to choose from and pilot on the battlefield. War Thunder is known for its authenticity and immersion. All of the vehicles you can take control of are real-life machines all throughout history from countries all over the world. So, join over 95 million other players for free today by using our link in the description and we'll even hook you up with a massive bonus pack if you sign up today. What? Yeah. Hey, here's a couple new kids on the block getting a lot of attention since AI started shaking things up. High performance, high density, and sovereign data centers. High performance/high density data centers draw a lot of energy since they're typically installed in giant hyperscale sites and pack as much compute as possible in each server stack. A recent report from the International Energy Agency states that in the past, a typical data center would consume between 5 and 10 MW of energy. While the new high density hyperscale projects can push upwards of 100 MW. And to put that into perspective, a single MW hour is enough energy to supply roughly 300 homes for a full day. High density centers are inherently also high power, but not all high power data centers are high density. If you're confused, it's okay, stick with me here. Like the boy band references in this video, they're fading fast. But one example of high power, low density would be something like vintage geographical weather gear which can draw a ton of power, but the hardware needs to be spread out since they generate so much heat. Don't expect to hear lots about these unless they're being retrofitted to pack in modern servers with more density. Finally, there's sovereign data centers. These are having a bit of a moment right now and they can take the form of pretty much every type we've mentioned already. They're popping up as governments and businesses realize that to control their data, it needs to be stored in a place where their local laws provide jurisdiction. That said, this can get murky. For instance, US companies operating in Canadian data centers are not safe from US government interference. For full sovereignty, you need the data center and the company operating under the same flag. So, those are the types, such as they are, but that's not the only way to categorize data centers. Another is the Uptime Institute's tier system. It ranks data centers from tier one at the bottom to tier four at the top, based on things like uptime, which means how long the system has been running without interruptions, redundancy, and how well they handle failures. And basically, it looks at four tiers. It looks at, you know, things like your availability, making sure that you've got available power that's consistent to process up to the maximum that you're you're allowed to process, cuz typically there's peaks and valleys in in consumption as well. It looks at redundancy, which means if one of these things fail, if your power fails, then what's your backup? If your cooling system fails, what's your backup? If, you know, your part of your IT infrastructure or your or your chips and servers go down, what's your backup? It also looks at fault fault tolerance. So, things like, you know, how often does do these things have errors, etc. You know, what's what's in the manufacturer's specs and and how are they performing? In some ways, I would call it a bit of an audit. What Chris told us is basically the checklist data centers live and die by. Power, backups, backups for the backups, and then backups for those, too. If you want to get a little more up close and personal with a data center, check out this video of Linus touring one, and drop a comment if you can guess what type it is."}