For end users, it’s easy to forget how much infrastructure is required to support the invisible magic that is cloud technology.
In reality, the cloud is made up of industrial-scale warehouses packed with backup generators, air conditioners, and data centers, where servers and other storage equipment are kept. In China, these data centers occupy a total of about 2.35 million square meters*, an area that is expected to expand to 3.27 million by 2019, according to DatacenterDynamics (DCD) Intelligence. On top of that, each data center requires electricity – a lot of it.
“In operational costs, electricity is the most expensive,” says Pan Dong from Guofu Guangqi (国富光启), a Shanghai-based PaaS and IaaS company. “Why are China’s telecom companies willing to go to Inner Mongolia and Guiyang? Because the electricity is cheaper.”
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