president, what is the premise of your new book? it is that digital technology has become both a tool and a weapon, creating kinds of benefits and all kinds of challenges as well, and we have to grapple with both sides of the equation. your book is essentially a world tour that begins in quincy, washington. why? because it is one of the data center capitals of the world, if you will. it is near the columbia river. data centers are being built there because it is close to hydroelectric power that is cheap and clean. we take the reader on a tour of what is becoming the infrastructure of the 21st century, these mammoth buildings, more than 20 of them, filled with electrical generators, thousands of batteries, and mostly server computers. everything we do almost every day is accessing or storing our data in the cloud, which really means one of these data centers. peter: you have 100 of these in 20 countries? brad: more than 20 countries, more than 100 data centers. microsof
infrastructure of the 21st century, these mammoth more than 20 of them, filled with electrical generators, hundreds, thousands batteries, but, of course, mostly server computers. everything we do almost every day is actually accessing or storing our data in the cloud of theselly means one data centers. peter: and you have 100 of these in 20 countries, is that correct? brad: more than 20 countries. more than 100 data centers. largestt is one of the but companies like google, amazon, facebook, apple, we re more and more of these data centers. it s where we re all storing our data. they become, among other things, the largest consumer of the world. in peter: so if i send an email from microsoft outlook here at theoffice to somebody at office, does it have to go through that data center? brad: it doesn t have to. can still use our software in a form where you store it on laptop or run it on your own server computer in your office. to the world has moved cloud over the last decade
technology has become both a tool and a weapon, benefits and challenges as well and we have to grapple with both sides of the equation. your book is essentially a world tour begins in quincy, washington. why? brad because it is one of the : data center capitals of the world. it is near the columbia river. data centers are being built there because it is close to hydroelectric power that is cheap and clean. we take the reader on a tour of what is becoming the infrastructure of the 21st century. these mammoth loadings. more than 20 of them filled with , thousandsgenerators of batteries, mostly server computers. everything we do almost every day is accessing or storing our data in the cloud, which really means one of these data centers. peter: you have 100 of these in 20 countries? brad: more than 20 countries, more than 100 data centers. microsoft is one of the largest but google, facebook, apple, are all building more and more of these data centers. it is where we are all st