Data Center Knowledge recently published a report about the world’s largest data centers, shedding some light on those massive server buildings our every day life depends on. In total, an estimated 40 to 50 million servers are located in data centers, consuming somewhere between 185 to 200 billion KWh per year, resulting in an estimated power bill of about $11 billion. Google is believed to operate about 2% of the world’s installed server base.
Here is the list in order from largest to smallest data center in the list.
1. 350 East Cermak / Lakeside Technology Center (Digital Realty): 1.1 million sqft
2. Metro Technology Center, Atlanta (Quality Technology): 990,000 sqft with 560,000 sqft of data center space
3. The NAP of the Americas, Miami (Terremark): 750,000 sqft
4. NGD Europe, Newport Wales (Next Generation Data): 750,000 sqft, 375,000 sqft data center space
5. Container Data Center, Chicago (Microsoft): 500,000 sqft
6. Microsoft Dublin (Microsoft): 550,000 sqft
7. Phoenix ONE, Phoenix (i/o Data Centers): 538,000 sqft
8. CH1, Elk Grove Village, Ill. (DuPont Fabros): 485,000 sqft
9. 9A and 9B. Microsoft Data Centers in Quincy Washington and San Antonio: 470,000 sqft
10. The SuperNAP, Las Vegas (Switch Communications): 407,000 sqft
You can see the list including some details here.
There is very little information about the actual server capacity available and some important data centers may actually be missing. For example, the Tokyo Data Center which represents Japan’s Internet backbone was recently claimed to be the world’s largest data center and some may also believe that NJ2 in Weehawken, NJ should have been on the list. Anytime some figures are available, however, the numbers are staggering. For example, Microsoft claims that its Chicago location can store about 6.75 trillion digital pictures, which puts the storage capacity of the data center into the neighborhood of 2,000 Petabyte.
In related news, Intac released a list of the dedicated servers used by big companies in the world. According to the list, Intel runs about 100,000 servers; Rackspace 56,671; Akamai about 70,000; Facebook about 30,000; AT&T 20,268; Time Warner Cable 24,817 and Verizon 25,788. Google seems to be the lonely leader with an estimated base of more than 1,000,000 servers, which would translate into 2% of all servers currently installed worldwide.
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