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The Keyword

A new podcast explores the unseen world of data centers

A photo of a Google data center's exterior.
An animated GIF showing the logo of Where the Internet Lives.

Nearly five billion people use the internet, but how many could tell you where it lives? In episode one, we explore what data centers are—and how they keep the internet going, even when events like COVID-19 trigger historic surges in traffic. 

Data centers are some of the most secure buildings on the planet. In episode two, we invite you to step inside and take a tour with one of Google’s top engineers. As we venture into computer systems that connect the world, we meet the people who keep these warehouse-scale machines running. Plus, a little-known story about the scrappy origins of Google’s first computers. 

How do data centers intersect with the communities they call home? What kinds of jobs do they create, and what do residents think of having a big computer in their backyard? In episode three, we hear what happens when the industrial economy meets the digital economy in communities across the globe. 

What would it take to run data centers on clean electricity, everywhere, every hour of the day? In episode four, we look at the evolution of data center energy use in a world confronting the threat of climate change—and explore promising ideas that could fuel a carbon-free future. 

Power outages? Hurricanes? Wildfires? Zombies? Google’s data centers have to keep operating in even the most unexpected of circumstances. In episode five, we meet the security and operations experts responsible for the multi-layered systems that keep the internet secure. 

For 50 years, computer performance has improved exponentially while the cost of computing has plummeted. But this phenomenal “Moore’s Law” trend has begun to slow down. What does it mean for data centers and what lies ahead? In our final episode, we peer into the future of technology—from machine learning to quantum computing—and explore the next chapter in the story of the physical internet.

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