Internet traffic in northern Virginia
An article in yesterday's Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that "70% of the world's Internet Traffic passes through" Loudoun County data centers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su... Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I've driven by the "cloud servers" in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still? Paul Ceruzzi Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013-7012 202-633-2414
I don't believe the number; I have seen too many really big data centers to assure you Loudon County doesn't have enough lang mass unless they are hiding servers under the streets. Jim On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
An article in yesterday’s Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that “70% of the world’s Internet Traffic passes through” Loudoun County data centers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su...
Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I’ve driven by the “cloud servers” in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still?
Paul Ceruzzi
Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20013-7012
202-633-2414
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382
No basis is fact. For some metrics see Caida - Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis https://asrank.caida.org/asns/23078 Thanks, Kevin Walsh Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Scripps Institution of Oceanography HiSeasNet Support KK6FRK (858)822-3356 <(858)%20822-3356> kwalsh@ucsd.edu in response to... On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 10:19 AM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote:
I don't believe the number; I have seen too many really big data centers to assure you Loudon County doesn't have enough lang mass unless they are hiding servers under the streets. Jim
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
An article in yesterday’s Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that “70% of the world’s Internet Traffic passes through” Loudoun County data centers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su...
Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I’ve driven by the “cloud servers” in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still?
Paul Ceruzzi
Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20013-7012
202-633-2414
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
I conferred with Jen Snow <jensnow47@gmail.com> of SOFWERX <https://www.sofwerx.org/> on this question. She confirmed this number, and even said that it is growing. She pointed me to this site: https://biz.loudoun.gov/key-business-sectors/data-centers/ for a little perspective on this: Loudoun County’s “Data Center Alley” is the world’s largest concentration of data centers, with nearly 13.5 million square feet currently in operation and another 4.5 million square feet being planned or developed. More than 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through Loudoun’s digital infrastructure, making us a key player in the world’s technology economy. Read more about data centers’ impact in the Data Center Study <http://www.nvtc.org/documents/advocacy/NVTC__DataCenter_Report_011316_final_lowres.pdf> . _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator and History Chair for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ieee.org/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 10:19 AM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote:
I don't believe the number; I have seen too many really big data centers to assure you Loudon County doesn't have enough lang mass unless they are hiding servers under the streets. Jim
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
An article in yesterday’s Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that “70% of the world’s Internet Traffic passes through” Loudoun County data centers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su...
Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I’ve driven by the “cloud servers” in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still?
Paul Ceruzzi
Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20013-7012
202-633-2414
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
I wonder if the WP article Paul mentions was blurring together two claims carefully kept in separate paragraphs in the document Brian quotes. The document says that (1) Loudoun country has more data centers than any other country and (2) 70% of worldwide traffic “passes through its internet infrastructure.” Whereas the WP story talks of “a cluster of computer data centers that handles 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic,” ignoring the vagueness of “internet infrastructure.” Perhaps the traffic is passing through other internet infrastructure concentrated in the area, a legacy of the old MAE East internet exchange, rather than truly being “handled” by the data centers. Even so, 70% seems dubiously high for 2019. There are approaching a billion internet users in China alone, close to a third of the world’s total, and I doubt their traffic is being routed through Virginia. So does Loudoun Country handle 100% of the non-Chinese traffic? Or are some internet users in the DC area, most obviously the NSA, using enough bandwidth to each outweigh hundreds of millions of Chinese smartphone users? Reminds me of the NY Times article this morning on another dubious but widely repeated statistic: 8 out of 10 women wear the wrong bra size. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/style/lingerie-are-8-out-of-10-women-real... Which they report with the tag “myth busted.” Tom From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Brian Berg Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 5:55 PM To: SIGCIS Listserver <members@sigcis.org> Cc: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Internet traffic in northern Virginia I conferred with Jen Snow <jensnow47@gmail.com <mailto:jensnow47@gmail.com> > of SOFWERX <https://www.sofwerx.org/> on this question. She confirmed this number, and even said that it is growing. She pointed me to this site: https://biz.loudoun.gov/key-business-sectors/data-centers/ for a little perspective on this: Loudoun County’s “Data Center Alley” is the world’s largest concentration of data centers, with nearly 13.5 million square feet currently in operation and another 4.5 million square feet being planned or developed. More than 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through Loudoun’s digital infrastructure, making us a key player in the world’s technology economy. Read more about data centers’ impact in the <http://www.nvtc.org/documents/advocacy/NVTC__DataCenter_Report_011316_final_lowres.pdf> Data Center Study. _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org <mailto:bberg@StanfordAlumni.org> Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com <http://www.bswd.com> FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com <http://www.FlashMemorySummit.com> IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator and History Chair for <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> Region 6 IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ieee.org/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Silicon Valley Tech History Committee Chair <https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BziWcipiMNJkZV9CdXg2YjJhQUk&export=download> On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 10:19 AM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> > wrote: I don't believe the number; I have seen too many really big data centers to assure you Loudon County doesn't have enough lang mass unless they are hiding servers under the streets. Jim On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu <mailto:CeruzziP@si.edu> > wrote: An article in yesterday’s Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that “70% of the world’s Internet Traffic passes through” Loudoun County data centers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su... Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I’ve driven by the “cloud servers” in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still? Paul Ceruzzi Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013-7012 202-633-2414 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org> , the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org> , the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
We sometimes forget that a large number of messages (as compared to volume of data) is generated for the DNS rather than for directly transporting dat and that NOVA has a substantial part of the DNS infrastructure. Still, I have a hard time turning that observation into 70% of anything. On a related point, the largest chapter of the IEEE-CS is the Nova chapter but that is a little artificial as the Bag Area is divided into three chapters.
On Oct 16, 2019, at 9:31 AM, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote:
I wonder if the WP article Paul mentions was blurring together two claims carefully kept in separate paragraphs in the document Brian quotes.
The document says that (1) Loudoun country has more data centers than any other country and (2) 70% of worldwide traffic “passes through its internet infrastructure.” Whereas the WP story talks of “a cluster of computer data centers that handles 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic,” ignoring the vagueness of “internet infrastructure.”
Perhaps the traffic is passing through other internet infrastructure concentrated in the area, a legacy of the old MAE East internet exchange, rather than truly being “handled” by the data centers.
Even so, 70% seems dubiously high for 2019. There are approaching a billion internet users in China alone, close to a third of the world’s total, and I doubt their traffic is being routed through Virginia. So does Loudoun Country handle 100% of the non-Chinese traffic? Or are some internet users in the DC area, most obviously the NSA, using enough bandwidth to each outweigh hundreds of millions of Chinese smartphone users?
Reminds me of the NY Times article this morning on another dubious but widely repeated statistic: 8 out of 10 women wear the wrong bra size. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/style/lingerie-are-8-out-of-10-women-real... Which they report with the tag “myth busted.”
Tom
From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Brian Berg Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 5:55 PM To: SIGCIS Listserver <members@sigcis.org> Cc: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Internet traffic in northern Virginia
I conferred with Jen Snow <jensnow47@gmail.com> of SOFWERX on this question. She confirmed this number, and even said that it is growing. She pointed me to this site: https://biz.loudoun.gov/key-business-sectors/data-centers/ for a little perspective on this:
Loudoun County’s “Data Center Alley” is the world’s largest concentration of data centers, with nearly 13.5 million square feet currently in operation and another 4.5 million square feet being planned or developed. More than 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through Loudoun’s digital infrastructure, making us a key player in the world’s technology economy. Read more about data centers’ impact in the Data Center Study. _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone Coordinator and History Chair for Region 6 IEEE SCV Section Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee Chair
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 10:19 AM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote: I don't believe the number; I have seen too many really big data centers to assure you Loudon County doesn't have enough lang mass unless they are hiding servers under the streets. Jim
On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 9:38 AM Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote: An article in yesterday’s Washington Post (by Antonio Olivo, Metro Section, Oct. 13, 2019), is about the changing racial and ethnic demographics of Loudoun County, Virginia, once a sleepy southern farming area, little changed for a century. It is now a diverse, IT- and Defense-oriented exurb of DC. The article mentions in passing that “70% of the world’s Internet Traffic passes through” Loudoun County data centers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-fast-growing-va-su...
Is this possible? On what sources did the reporter base that information? I’ve driven by the “cloud servers” in Ashburn, Virginia, and they are impressive. But still?
Paul Ceruzzi Curator Emeritus, Department of Space History National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013-7012 202-633-2414
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
participants (6)
-
Brian Berg -
Ceruzzi, Paul -
David Grier -
James Cortada -
Kevin Walsh -
Thomas Haigh