As the human population grows, we struggle to compete for s p a c e. In Singapore, we never forget the importance of land because we have so little. Every Singaporean is reminded of the struggles of being a tiny land mass everyday, be it through our HDB flats, reclaimed land or sky-high property prices.
This is what makes the Internet so magical, its infinity. It is something that exists, yet doesn't exist physically. On the Net, there is no struggle for a place, a space, or a piece of land.
Or so I thought...
This is what makes the Internet so magical, its infinity. It is something that exists, yet doesn't exist physically. On the Net, there is no struggle for a place, a space, or a piece of land.
Or so I thought...
The Internet is often illustrated to us less tech educated as a cloud - a gigantic cloud that is able to contain all of the infinite World Wide Web. However, the truth is fairly simple (and less magical): the Internet requires physical storage. REAL storage that takes up space and land.
The above video gives us insight on how social media giant Facebook is run, and also clues us into how and where Facebook stores the information of its billions of users. Its mammoth-sized Data Centre of 300,00 square feet consists of servers, memory banks and back up power generators, all essential to the smooth operation of the social media giant.
If that isn't enough, Facebook's need for memory grows larger and larger everyday. Not only are people posting more status updates and pictures, the social networking site continues to receive 100 million new users every six months. This in turn causes Facebook to add 'thousands' of new servers everyday in order to store all this information. The rate in which Facebook is growing has also prompted them to construct a new and even larger Data Centre.
This is just Facebook. What about Google? Yahoo? Twitter? Amazon? eBay? Tumblr? Wordpress? Blogger?
If physical space is what the Internet needs, does it mean it has a limit? Is it just one more thing that competes for s p a c e?
The above video gives us insight on how social media giant Facebook is run, and also clues us into how and where Facebook stores the information of its billions of users. Its mammoth-sized Data Centre of 300,00 square feet consists of servers, memory banks and back up power generators, all essential to the smooth operation of the social media giant.
If that isn't enough, Facebook's need for memory grows larger and larger everyday. Not only are people posting more status updates and pictures, the social networking site continues to receive 100 million new users every six months. This in turn causes Facebook to add 'thousands' of new servers everyday in order to store all this information. The rate in which Facebook is growing has also prompted them to construct a new and even larger Data Centre.
This is just Facebook. What about Google? Yahoo? Twitter? Amazon? eBay? Tumblr? Wordpress? Blogger?
If physical space is what the Internet needs, does it mean it has a limit? Is it just one more thing that competes for s p a c e?
Very interesting, I always thought of the Internet as something non-physical; kind of shocking to learn that it actually takes up so much physical space!
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