Research has indicated that in 2018, there were over a few billion people accessing the internet for the purpose of storing data and even processing needs were growing rapidly. As such, over the last ten years, several data centres have popped up and successfully grown to roughly the size of a relatively small city – that’s a lot of Fiamm 12FLB350 batteries! Our article features some of the biggest centres around the world.
The China Telecom Data Centre
First on our list is the China Telecom Data Centre of China. This center is located in the inner part of Mongolia’s Informational Park. However, the centre holds the records for being the largest to exist and it covers a whopping 10.7mnsqft. The centre is home to their talented staff living quarters, a data centre for cloud computing, offices, several call centres and a warehouse.
In addition, the China Telecom Data Centre is also the most expensive centre within the world and statistics has indicated that it went on to cost over $3bn after completion. However, this particular location has offered several factors to investors that made them jump at the idea of placing a centre in this particular location of Hohhot. They experience over 12 inches of rainfall which creates a pretty decent reserve for the use of hydroelectric power. In essence, they got the perfect climate for a data hub since extremely cool temperatures give them cool fresh air for about three quarter of the year.
The China Mobile Hohot Data Centre
Second on our list is the China Mobile Hohot Data Centre. Our number first and second choice in our list when combined go up to six facilities that were hyper scaled and placed within the inner sector of the Mongolian Information Park. The China Mobile Hohhot Data Centre has been said to span a massive 7.7mnsqft and cost its owners roughly $1.92bn at completion. This facillity was constructed in such a way that future expansions can be easily accommodated; in addition, the centre specialises in cloud computing, advanced development in LTE 4G and enterprise services among others.
The Citadel
Third on our list is The Citadel in Nevada. The Citadel is located in the north close to Reno. However, this facility is still yet to be completed and it already spans a 7.2mnsqft. The Citadel was built by Switch and consumes a whopping 650 Megs which comes from purely sources that are renewable. In addition, the facility maximises on the company’s network as it delivers a latency of 9milsec to both San Diego and LA; and they currently have the most creative and innovative ideas in the world thus far.
Harbin Data Centre
Fourth on our list is the Harbin Data Centre in China. The Harbin Data Centre is located within the Heilongjiang district and is currently the largest known structure to currently exist within Harbin’s Ice City. China Mobile has ownership of the 7.1mnsqft Harbin Centre; and they deal with cloud computing and telecom data alike. In addition, the Harbin has been known to consume roughly 150megawatts.
The Kolos Data Centre
Fifth on our list is The Kolos Data Centre of Norway. Located in a really small village is one of the largest data centres in all of Europe as it spans 6.5mnsqft of four storeys. The Kolos is being transformed into a scalable centre as they plan to consume in the future up to 1000megawatts. And, for those keeping a special eye on this data center, the designers and analyst claim that the centre will run purely on renewables as they aim to save up to 60% of their annual energy cost.
The Dupont Fabros Technology Facility
And last but not least is the Dupont Fabros Technology facility located in Virginia. This facility is 2.1mnsqft as it features seven buildings in Ashburn. Further research has indicated that the facility covers roughly 160 acres. In addition, it has been said that the facility can possibly be the home to around close to eleven thousand servers.
These servers will be running on around 208megawatts of power. And, as of June 2017, there have been several discussions around Dupont Fabros Tech being bought by Digital Reality Trust for $7.6bn.