Rey Banks, Head of State & Local Public Policy and Government Affairs Equinix, carries out a detailed analysis of the peculiarities of modern data centers.
Data centers are often mistakenly seen as large, energy-intensive buildings, but they are much more than that: the data center industry has a global impact and is capable of bringing economic and social benefits to communities around the world.
Most people don’t think about data centers in their daily lives. Even as they use the Internet for entertainment, directions, banking, shopping and more, they fail to consider that there are physical buildings somewhere that enable all of this. Yet, data centers enable everything from streaming content to social media, from automated manufacturing to global logistics; and there are also many ways in which data centers are able to positively impact local communities around the world.
Support the local economy
Your first direct experience with data centers comes when you learn that a building is planned to be built in your community. This raises all sorts of questions, usually regarding the safety of the facility and how its presence could negatively impact its surroundings.
But, on the contrary, there are many ways in which data centers beneficially impact communities. The most obvious way is perhaps to provide jobs in a stable and rapidly growing sector. Within any new data center, there are a wide variety of strong, well-paid roles to fill, which can include operations and facilities management roles, such as property manager, logistics manager, HVAC technician and cable technician , and commercial roles, such as sales and marketing, business development and account executive, as well as classic IT roles, such as hardware engineer, network engineer and cybersecurity analyst.
Furthermore, data center jobs aren’t just aimed at those who fit the stereotypical profile of a tech worker: the industry is growing faster than the current job market can support, and the search for talent therefore it also expands to pools that other companies traditionally neglect.
Benefits for the entrepreneurial ecosystem
The benefits to the local economy begin before the new data center even opens its doors. Designing and building a data center requires a wide range of skilled labor and professional support, from engineers to architects, general contractors to electricians. These workers are often hired by small local businesses. A recent PwC report found that each direct job in the data center industry indirectly supports more than six other jobs in other sectors of the U.S. economy.
Once operational, data centers continue to generate economic benefits and opportunities for local businesses. A data center is much more than just a box for storing data. It is a platform to exploit the full value of data, especially in the case of colocation data centers which, similar to an airport where several airlines gather in one place, is able to bring together several digital service providers in a single location. And just as an airport connects passengers to the world, a colocation data center connects local businesses with partners who help them move their data wherever it needs to go.
Colocation data centers can also be more efficient. Rather than having individual companies operate their own private data centers, a colocation data center allows them to come together in a single facility, thus using fewer natural resources.
Contrast of the digital divide
Developing digital literacy and skills is a prerequisite for success in our technology-driven economy, but the digital divide is a complex problem with multiple causes and no easy solutions. Unfortunately, traditionally marginalized communities are less able to access the skills development opportunities and resources offered by technology. As a result, they risk falling even further behind. Ensuring equitable access to digital connectivity will be essential to creating healthy, functioning communities in the decades to come, and data centers will have a responsibility to ensure this.
The solution requires an ecosystem of diverse partners working together towards a common goal. Data centers can be the hub where these partners come together to collaborate and share their services and become more than the sum of their parts.
One way for a DC operator to achieve this could be to give its partners free access to its services. For example, it could offer qualified Internet Service Providers (ISPs) free connectivity to an Internet Exchange, which in turn could use this connectivity to help bring affordable Internet access to underserved communities in the area that it helps.
Data centers can also take a community-based approach and support a range of non-profits, social enterprises and educational institutions working to promote digital inclusion in the communities in which they operate.
Development of a synergy with the environment
Obviously a data center has an impact on the local environment and it is important to consider the impact of the site on local vegetation and wildlife.
Site designers must take into account endangered species (even if only locally) that need to be preserved; they must seek to design sites that preserve biodiversity. This may mean leaving green paths that allow animals to move from one forested area to another, adding plants that provide food and cover for other inhabitants, or restoring local species that have been eliminated by invasive activities.
A green facade or roof, for example, in addition to keeping buildings cool by lowering cooling costs and reducing stormwater runoff, which can carry pollution into nearby lakes and rivers and contribute to flooding, can provide a habitat for birds, bats and insects, especially honey bees, which are experiencing dramatic population declines. Green facades and roofs can even support small-scale agriculture.
Ultimately, the intersection of environmental and social sustainability should be a fundamental component of the data center design process and this is the reality in many sites, capable of creating a positive impact on the environment and communities and finding creative ways to reuse and recover their energy expenditure.