Fact : While some data centres win architecture awards, more commonly they resemble boring industrial buildings. But appearances can be misleading: nondescript exteriors house a whole array of state-of-the-art technologies; telecommunications networks, sophisticated cooling and ventilation, power conditioning, battery rooms, switchgear, emergency generators, control rooms, biometric security systems, monitoring systems and, hopefully, a coffee machine.

Fact : The amount of data that we generate, process, transmit and store is increasing faster than ever before, driven by the digitisation of modern societies. But this data explosion is only driving an incremental increase in data centre energy use. Overall, data centre energy efficiency is improving through a combination of Moore’s Law (processor efficiency doubles every 18-24 months) and technologies like virtualisation and cloud computing, which massively increase computing capacity whilst reducing energy consumption. In addition, the migration of computing activity from inefficient server rooms to modern industrial facilities also helps to reduce overall power consumption. Overall, the net increase in energy use in data centres is relatively small in comparison to the exponential data growth that is passing through them.

Fact : Data centres need the “5 Ps” - Policy, People, Pedigree, Pipes and Power - although the order of priority varies depending on the business model.

Fact : Data centres have everything to do with you, from the moment you get up in the morning to last thing at night. You rely on data centres for everyday activities such as booking a ticket, receiving a text, shopping online, paying tax, visiting the doctor, socialising on social media, storing photos, paying the electricity bill, or calling your mother. We depend on data centres in the same way that we depend on electricity.