A Local Leader’s Guide to Evaluating Data Center Development
When a data center is proposed, local leaders are often asked to weigh significant economic opportunities against equally significant questions about infrastructure, land use and long-term community impact. The challenge is that data centers are not ordinary commercial buildings. They may require substantial electricity, specialized utility infrastructure, large parcels of land and years of phased […]
How Can Data Centers Be Better Neighbors?
Being a good neighbor involves more than complying with zoning rules or making a donation after construction begins. For a data center, it means understanding that a project becomes part of a real community. Its electricity use, water demand, construction activity, physical appearance, tax contribution and operating practices can affect the people and institutions around […]
What Questions Should Communities Ask About a Proposed Data Center?
When a data center is proposed, the public conversation can quickly become divided between people who see economic opportunity and people who worry about local impacts. A better starting point is a set of clear, project-specific questions. Not every data center has the same design or effect. A community should therefore avoid relying solely on […]
Why Are Data Centers Being Built in More Places?
Data centers were once something most people rarely thought about. Today, proposals are appearing before planning commissions, utility regulators and local governments in a growing number of communities. Several forces are driving that expansion. They include continued growth in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, video streaming, connected devices, online business activity and the amount of information […]
What Is a Data Center?
Every time you stream a movie, check your bank balance, join a video call, use a navigation app or save a document to the cloud, information has to be stored, processed and delivered to your device. Much of that work happens inside data centers. A data center is a physical home for digital information A […]