Uploading your music to the cloud isn't as simple as you might think. As more data is stored online, the cloud takes more and more energy to maintain, forcing companies to get into the business of getting power as cheaply as possible.
1. The Cloud of Smog.
The companies of the cloud--the so-called “information factories” of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, among others--have collectively achieved a scale of which old-school factories could only dream. The cloud is, however, quite dirty. It takes a lot of carbon to run all the servers that power it. And since more carbon means more money, these companies are doing everything possible to make their operations as efficient as possible.
Just as Henry Ford met economies of scale with a level of vertical integration never seen before or since--amassing railroads, mines, and even rubber plantations to supply his factories--the cloud companies are coping with their billowing...
1. The Cloud of Smog.
The companies of the cloud--the so-called “information factories” of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, among others--have collectively achieved a scale of which old-school factories could only dream. The cloud is, however, quite dirty. It takes a lot of carbon to run all the servers that power it. And since more carbon means more money, these companies are doing everything possible to make their operations as efficient as possible.
Just as Henry Ford met economies of scale with a level of vertical integration never seen before or since--amassing railroads, mines, and even rubber plantations to supply his factories--the cloud companies are coping with their billowing...
- 5/26/2011
- by Greg Lindsay
- Fast Company
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