A facility that houses servers, storage, and networking equipment, along with the power and cooling systems needed to run them.
Data centers range from a small server room in an office to enormous buildings operated by cloud providers. Key components include racks of servers, network connections, uninterruptible power supplies, backup generators, cooling systems, and physical security. Colocation data centers rent space to many companies, while hyperscale facilities serve a single large operator.
The growth of cloud computing and AI has driven rapid data center construction. AI workloads use dense clusters of accelerators that draw far more power per rack than traditional servers, increasing demand for electricity, cooling, and sometimes water. For example, a new AI-focused facility may require a dedicated grid connection and liquid cooling. Operators track efficiency with measures such as power usage effectiveness and increasingly sign agreements for clean energy.
Delivering computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, and software over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Green ComputingDesigning, using, and disposing of computers and IT systems in ways that reduce energy use and environmental impact.
Power Usage EffectivenessA data center efficiency metric, known as PUE, that divides total facility energy use by the energy used by IT equipment alone.
A plain-English map of the state AI laws in effect or enacted as of October 2026, from Colorado's rewritten AI Act to chatbot, hiring and deepfake rules.
How to get an entry-level IT job: the help desk and support roles to target, skills and certifications that matter, home lab projects that impress hiring managers and official BLS pay data.
High availability keeps systems running when parts fail. Here is how redundancy and failover work, what each extra nine of uptime really costs, and how to pick the right target.