The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize. Gartner, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. Industry research company International Data Corporation (IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old.
Meta says it currently has 28 data centers in the US, and that some of the permitted facilities in Business Insider’s analysis are offices. Business Insider’s analysis of permits shows that Meta had 38 US data centers at the end of 2025, a figure that Meta says is too high. This map is an updated version of the data center map we published last year. We used data in these permits to identify data center location and ownership, and estimate facility power use.
- David Klaus and Mark MacCarthy have argued that since the major technology companies are building data centers and will benefit from their services, they should shoulder more of the costs.
- What policy recommendations are needed to address the expansion of data centers?
- Over the years, computers became more size-efficient, requiring less physical space.
- According to a 2024 Berkeley Lab report, data centers in the U.S. had used approximately 17 billion gallons of water.
An analysis by Ceres, a nonprofit advocacy group, found that data centers around Phoenix already use approximately 385 million gallons of water per year for direct cooling needs. In Arizona, another water-stressed state, companies have built, or announced plans to build, 26 data centers since 2022. However, experts at the Houston Advanced Research Center and the University of Houston believe the increased water demand from this project and the dozens of others popping up across Texas will strain supplies in coming years. One planned site, called Project Matador, will house 18 million square feet of data centers—plus four nuclear reactors and a natural gas power plant. What’s more, about two-thirds of the data centers built since 2022 are in areas already experiencing water stress, according to a Bloomberg News investigation. Hyperscale data centers can worsen water shortages in regions already hit by the 25-year megadrought.
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Data centers have also generated concerns in Northern Virginia about whether residents will have to foot the bill for future power lines. Higher electricity prices are already occurring in some regions, particularly those with lots of data centers like Santa Clara, California, and parts of upstate New York. According to one 2025 energy model, the U.S. could see energy prices increase 8% nationally by 2030. Globally, since 2022, more than two-thirds of new data centers have been built in water-stressed areas, including Texas, Arizona, Saudi Arabia, and India, where freshwater scarcity is already a critical issue. Lastly, data centers consume water through the process of AI chip and server manufacturing.
- In the process, a data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water every day, as much as 16,000-plus average U.S. households, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates.
- The days of viewing the data center as a static, “set it and forget it” facility are over.
- Data centers contain sensitive information and business-critical applications, which call for a comprehensive security strategy that spans physical data centers and multicloud environments.
- In an emailed statement, a Meta spokesperson says the company is working to “mitigate impacts to the community” by building new roads to divert truck traffic, conducting a traffic study, and collaborating with contractors and the local police department.
- As-a-service data center models are poised to become more prevalent, with IDC forecasting that 65% of tech buyers will prioritize these models by 2026.3
- Community advocates fighting to stop data centers are concerned that the projects will overtax the state’s power grid or make it less reliable, and cause residential electricity bills to rise.
How do I find data centers near me?
AI is the biggest new force remaking data centers, fueling their growth and forcing a rethink of how they’re built. A single large data center can consume millions of gallons a day, as much as a town of tens of thousands. They bring construction work, tax revenue and fresh infrastructure, but they also lean hard on electricity, water and land while employing relatively few people once they’re running.
You can choose from many types of data center services, depending on your requirements. Although you can remove components from Tier II data centers without shutting them down, unexpected failures can affect the system. These data center components support the main equipment so that https://texas-news.com/animated-storytelling-for-brands-how-companies-use-2d-animation-to-tell-their-story-and-emphasize-their-corporate-image.html you can use the data center facilities without interruption. A large number of networking devices, such as cables, switches, routers, and firewalls connect other data center components to each other and to end-user locations. Also, data center equipment includes support infrastructure like power systems, which help the main equipment function effectively. Early computer systems required many large components that operators had to connect with many cables.
Supporting Systems in a Data Center
Most modern data centers, including in-house on-premises ones, have evolved from the traditional IT architecture. Today, most colocation providers offer management and monitoring services to clients who want them. In the traditional colocation model, the client company has sole access to the hardware and full responsibility for managing it. These options are ideal for those who prefer not to host their infrastructure by using the shared resources of a public cloud data center.
What Is the Infrastructure of a Data Center?
Because of the high investment costs, many of the current hyperscale data centers are set up by the large technology firms themselves. David Klaus and Mark MacCarthy have argued that since the major technology companies are building data centers and will benefit from their services, they should shoulder more of the costs. As of 2024, the financial investment required for data centers reached hundreds of billions of dollars, and that number is expected to increase into the trillions by 2030. Additionally, data centers help organizations comply with regulatory requirements by implementing data protection standards and maintaining secure environments for handling personal and financial data. Virtualization takes memory, storage space and other hardware components of computers and allows them to be divided among virtual computers, or virtual machines (VMs).
Companies that build and operate data centers say that generating power on-site can reduce strain on the grid during peak times, and potentially keep consumer electricity bills in check. As AI data center construction outpaces the facilities’ ability to connect to the grid in many areas, some are opting to rely entirely on their own generators. According to a recent Kapor Foundation report, 82 percent of California data centers are located in communities already facing poor air quality. And because many data centers are built close to homes and schools, these emissions can put nearby residents and children at particular risk. In late January, with the threat of bitter cold temperatures and impending winter storms in many parts of the U.S., the Department of Energy gave a preemptive green light to data centers and other “major facilities” to run their generators as needed. Because the equipment inside data centers operates day and night, operators often install fossil-fuel generators that can provide power in the event of a shortage or an outage.
What Are the Four Tiers of Data Centers?
Another is to have national permits for data centers as opposed to locally required ones. Another proposal is to exempt data center projects from certain review requirements dictated by the National Environmental Policy Act, the https://elitecolumbia.com/businessware-technologies-offers-a-full-range-of-services-from-initial-consulting-to-development-and-implementation.html Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. Without reliable access to prime materials, overbuilding is a possibility, and in the absence of long-term commitments from AI companies, vast amounts of land could become “data center deserts” if cheaper alternatives emerge elsewhere.
If you’ve driven past a big windowless building, you’ve probably seen a data center. Social mobilizations against data centers help shape the discourse around growth of the industry, raise public awareness of issues data centers present, and may impact public policy. In 2026, it was reported that data centers were becoming a target of organized crime, in which thieves were stealing copper and data center equipment from construction sites and selling them on the black market. A study found the productivity increases enabled by data centers are multiple times larger than gross external damages.