Have you wondered where the “Cloud” is or what it is? When we first began using computers, we kept our data files on our hard drive. Now our files are kept on the Cloud – and with everyone else’s files. These files are kept in huge centralized data buildings. We use the Cloud without knowing it. Because I am “small potatoes,” the Cloud is mostly used by big companies like The New York Times, Fox News, Twitter, Shell, Netflix, GE and Phillips. You get the idea….really big companies.  But my stuff – and yours – is there too.

So where is the Cloud? The biggest data center in the World is AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS is larger than the next 14 competitors. This data center is located in London City, VA.  Can you enter? Only if you are “eyeball recognized”, then there are 9 password doors to pass through. Each password door is a “man-trap” (is that sexist?), which means that one door must close before the next one opens. There are 3 million websites running on racks of powerful computers in London City, VA where 70% of the web traffic of the World is stored. The center is 10 million square feet with 70 enormous buildings. And there are 7 new buildings under construction. This data center needs a lot of green space as it is growing every day. London City is at 100% capacity as of the TV interview.

What is there is a power failure?  It would only last 10 minutes and then huge generators would kick in. These data centers use massive amounts of power.

Google AWS and read all about it. I found it very interesting.