The Unknown Infrastructure that Powers our World

This is how the Internet backbone is built.

This video contains paid promotion for Microsoft.

Additional footage and images courtesy of Google, Costar, Microsoft, Sergio77, CTBTO and Michael Kauffmann.

Research sources:

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[briangarrow]

I live in the Pacific Northwest and have some experience with infrastructure projects. An interesting fact is that for decades the huge power system along the Columbia River had aluminum smelting as its major customer. Those smelters are almost all gone. What happened to all the power that was used by the aluminum industry since WW2? Well, interestingly enough, now that power is being bought by those internet data centers. Those data centers are consuming the power that used to feed the aluminum industry. That is a huge amount of energy.

[grahamcollins]

I've been lucky enough to work in several UK data centres. What always strikes me is how few people there are in them. I have often spent days in vast halls of equipment racks and other than security guards on the entrance, I don't see a soul when I'm inside. Bliss!

[jimmurphy]

My job is to keep all the instruments located in those little brick buildings you see along the sides of the roads, calibrated and functioning properly.
There are pH, Chlorine, fluoride, flow, pressure and a host of other instruments monitoring and running the infrastructure all around us.
Our entire society runs on a billion simple 4-20mA circuits.

[TheChangeYT]

5:58 Data centers will certainly NOT consume as much as 20% of the worlds' electricity. Currently It is estimated, to be around 1.1-1.3 % Please Revise! @TheB1m
Maybe the team misread the source, which reported a 20% increase.

[_JamesBrown]

As a cloud security engineer, I appreciate all you data center workers that make my job possible!

[leewhotravels]

Good Stuff! Thanks Fred and team. I'm part of the team at Microsoft that oversees information security management at our datacenters. Recognized many of the facilities featured in your video as I've been fortunate enough to visit many of them as part of my role. 🙂 So glad to see the B1M providing coverage of this often overlooked part of our infrastructure!

[achyscorpion]

Awesome video! I wish some of these data centers had visitor policies, so nerds like myself would be able to visit and just be in awe of all the cool stuff in there. Like a kid in a candy shop.

[arrjay]

I was vaguely aware of the "server farms" and some of the innovative things they were doing to deal with cooling. It is very interesting to see it all summed up in one video.
Thank you.

[united]

Fred would be great if you ever done some videos in regards to rollercoaster constructions, probably not something you’d consider but would be great content ! And id love to see an in-depth documentary or mini series talking about this because id love to know more

[dcallan]

We are currently having power lines (from a new wind farm) laid and coming ashore just a mile or so up the coast from my house. Its been really interesting watching them work everyday. Many of the ships that have been in and out have been used for fibreoptic internet cables. Great video 2x👍

[MassiveBuild]

Well said, dear friend. Internet backbone is an incredible thing

[SIRENSCINEMATIC-SCOTLAND]

The first ship you showed is my ship I'm actually one of the supervisors that operates and maintains the machines that install the subsea cables ama

[peterixon]

Stunning, the insights from this video. Brians comment below about the Columbia River power usage compliments your video really well B1M. Thanks for the obvious effort you've made.

[Timmycoo]

Lol this was a thing I was going to request of you since I thought it was up your alley. The underwater data center idea. I follow quite a few tech channels who have touched on it a bit but it seems like such a big endeavor that I look forward to it coming to fruition. One of the biggest reasons (apart from the water cooling aspect) is the protection from a Carrington-level event coronal mass ejection.

[ohheyitskevinc]

I have an Apple data center just over the road. Huge site with its own solar farm and fire station. Seems weird to think my iCloud Photos and backups are floating around either there or somewhere similar.

[Alexrocksdude_]

The script reads like it was written by microsoft. Congrats on the sponsorship but this video is noticeably lower quality.

[Eric_In_SF]

I really dislike it when sponsors are integrated so smoothly into videos. It just seems dishonest, and I don’t know where the lines between am I being fed information or am I being fed an advertisement begin and end. YouTube is going to have to face regulation like the television industry soon Especially when it comes to other Youtubers, who have their own product lines and don’t have to mention sponsorships, and basically just turn their channels interruptions for their products, and are no longer feeding good information from a neutral standpoint

[Samuel_J]

LPT: delete any unwanted/unnecessary digital files you keep stored on the cloud as it all takes up server space, consumes energy and creates heat just by existing.
Nice video, but it would have been cool to see more of the construction aspects, or pros and cons of different server locations.

[polishguy]

Beavers building data centers? Now thats a mod for Timberborn I never know I needed.

[swiftmooseblz]

I am a BIM coordinator for a electrical contractor. All we do are these data centers and they are crazy.