Our Data Centres - Your Real Life

We’ve probably met before, but you might not remember it all that well - it’s okay, we won’t take it personally!

Most people don’t even realise that they visit someone like us every single day. We’re talking about data centres of course.

You might have heard about them before, or you might just have an image in your head of a big warehouse with lots of computers in it, but do you know just how much you’re using them all the time, without even knowing it? Let’s look at what your day might look like for a moment:

Wake up. Check to see if that latest selfie you posted has got the likes it truly deserved. See a video of a dog being cute. Hit like straight away. Running late for work again? Better check the trains are running on time on your phone. Did you remember to book your Doctor’s appointment? Best check to make sure you’re all booked in – the receptionist will be able to look it up and tell you. Nailed this presentation for work! Better save it on the Cloud so you can impress your boss later. The group message is going mad – your mates are arranging after work drinks again. Should you go? Yes. Where is this bar? Check your maps app. Found it! Get a round of drinks – tap your card to pay. Tap again later on. Had more rounds– best go home. Get the taxi app open. Back home – feet up and time to stream your favourite new box set. Who cares if you’ve watched three whole series in a week?

If any of that sounds familiar, then you’ve just used a data centre a whole lot more than you realised.

You see, if every time you use something that requires the internet, you’re sending data to and from one of these buildings to make things happen. For example, a quick search for something online could mean that data has travelled thousands of miles to the computer that had that information and then back again to your device in just fractions of a second. And it’s the same for everything you do. Your selfie has been pinged around the world and back faster than you can decide you preferred the other filter. Your takeaway order has been via a location many miles away (data centres actually bring you pizza!).

The cloud is something you’ll almost certainly have heard of, but sadly you can’t look up and see this kind of cloud. You’ve actually got to look in ultra secure, highly-powered and super-chilled facilities to see these types. And they don’t look all that white and fluffy at all, unfortunately. In reality, they’re just servers that make sure you can access your data anytime you like, from anywhere in the world – which is still pretty cool.

The best part is, all of this is going in the background. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year without any interruption to your life. You can go about your life as normal and the data centre will always be doing its thing, helping you do yours.

Why not check out this quick video that shows everything we’ve talked about here.

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