Quote:
Originally Posted by Knightslayer
This is great news even though I have no clue what a datacenter is.
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Most things you do on the internet run through datacentres now. It used to be that every company ran their own server hardware, connected it to the internet, and you'd access their website that way. Now, most companies contract that hosting to a datacentre, setup servers virtually where the server OS or platform runs on someone else's hardware, segregated from everyone else, sharing resources like RAM and CPU, though you can have exclusive access too.
Even CalgaryPuck uses a Content Delivery Network(CDN) which distributes site resources geographically, so you access some CP content from the datacentre that is closest to you, for faster access. Netflix co-locates their content at ISP's like Shaw, so your video is accessed quickly, and doesn't need to travel over the internet from distant places. It also saves Shaw loads on backbone bandwidth.
Datacentres are definitely very important to the internet going forward, and are an efficient method of delivering content, storing and processing data, and doing everything companies used to do with onsite servers. Having AWS so close means really good things for us in general, because the internet for AWS hosted sites will be faster and more responsive. Good for users, good for business.