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I   STORAGE

How is data stored on the internet? And how does the internet actually work? What storage does exist? 

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hannesmilan.de

Where does our communication go? The Internet, like the “Cloud”, could appear somewhat hazy and evanescent, but it actually has a solid physical and concrete architectural structure. Data does not just disappear into thin air; they are transmitted via optic fibre cables, connect to Internet boxes, first to the city data centre, then to the regional Internet exchange point, that passes on the information.

Internet exists physically and occupies an inconspicuous space on earth; buried underground or stored under strict surveillance in a few data centres. There is something magical about the whole internet system: internet data centers light up like modern temples, the deafening sound of the air-conditioning telling its stories in the secret centres whose limited access makes them even more fascinating.¹

¹ https://louisedrulhe.fr/internet-atlas/

How does the storage infrastructure look like?

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Data center in Germany

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World map of fiber cables in the ocean, Source

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Profile of a fiber cable, Source

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Worlds first transatlantic cable, Source

Will the Internet ever run out of space?

If you even begin to think about how big the internet is, your brain might start to hurt. And how do you even measure the size of the internet? We might never be able to fully understand the depths of the World Wide Web, but there are a few different ways to approach it. We’re going to talk in byte-sizes, which is a unit of digital memory. (It isn’t exact, but think of each letter of every word on this page as being comprised of one byte.)

The internet seems endless, and we don’t know if it will ever reach full capacity. It is all run on servers. Which means the only way to run out of space is if we cannot add any more hardware. In 2014, Live Science estimated the limits of the internet to be 1 million exabytes. An exabyte is 1 billion billion bytes (that’s 18 zeros after the 1). The King James edition of the Bible contains 3,116,480 letters, so one exabyte alone holds more than 320 billion Bibles’ worth of text. If you stacked them up, you’d have 16,000 stacks of bibles reaching the moon… with some left to spare.²

² https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/how-big-is-the-internet

←START

RESEARCH→

 

I   STORAGE

How is data stored on the internet? And how does the internet actually work? What storage does exist? 

hannesmilan.de
hannesmilan.de

Where does our communication go? The Internet, like the “Cloud”, could appear somewhat hazy and evanescent, but it actually has a solid physical and concrete architectural structure. Data does not just disappear into thin air; they are transmitted via optic fibre cables, connect to Internet boxes, first to the city data centre, then to the regional Internet exchange point, that passes on the information.

Internet exists physically and occupies an inconspicuous space on earth; buried underground or stored under strict surveillance in a few data centres. There is something magical about the whole internet system: internet data centers light up like modern temples, the deafening sound of the air-conditioning telling its stories in the secret centres whose limited access makes them even more fascinating.¹

¹ https://louisedrulhe.fr/internet-atlas/

How does the storage infrastructure look like?

hannesmilan.de

Data center in Germany

hannesmilan.de

World map of fiber cables in the ocean, Source

hannesmilan.de

Profile of a fiber cable, Source

hannesmilan.de

Worlds first transatlantic cable, Source

Will the Internet ever run out of space?

If you even begin to think about how big the internet is, your brain might start to hurt. And how do you even measure the size of the internet? We might never be able to fully understand the depths of the World Wide Web, but there are a few different ways to approach it. We’re going to talk in byte-sizes, which is a unit of digital memory. (It isn’t exact, but think of each letter of every word on this page as being comprised of one byte.)

The internet seems endless, and we don’t know if it will ever reach full capacity. It is all run on servers. Which means the only way to run out of space is if we cannot add any more hardware. In 2014, Live Science estimated the limits of the internet to be 1 million exabytes. An exabyte is 1 billion billion bytes (that’s 18 zeros after the 1). The King James edition of the Bible contains 3,116,480 letters, so one exabyte alone holds more than 320 billion Bibles’ worth of text. If you stacked them up, you’d have 16,000 stacks of bibles reaching the moon… with some left to spare.²

² https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/how-big-is-the-internet

←START

RESEARCH→