providing the platforms needed for cloud computing at a global scale? That’s a different story. As I walk among the thousands of blinking computers, racks of batteries, and enormous generators, it feels like more than a different era. It seems like a different planet. Data center campuses cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. And once construction ends, the work to maintain and upgrade the facility begins. Sites are expanded, and servers, hard drives, and batteries are upgraded or swapped for newer and more efficient equipment. A data center is never done.
