From the cloud to the community

It was as far back as 1993 that the first reference to ‘the cloud’ was made by an IT company, when AT&T told its customers “You can think of our electronic meeting place as the cloud” in a promotional film.  

Before this, the cloud symbol was widely used in technical diagrams to represent complex telephone or computer networks, essentially saying that these are the internal working of this network that we don’t need to show.  

I clearly remember an IT manager during a staff induction pointing to the racks of servers in the office cupboard and proudly saying that “overnight, all that goes to the cloud”. The new recruits looked on blankly but seemed reassured that they may be able to get yesterday’s work back, if they accidentally deleted their document today.

By the early 2000s, companies were busy rolling out commercial applications with the selling feature of storing data over the internet. There were a variety of versions of online storage systems in operation but the phrase ‘cloud storage’ was first heard in 2006 when Amazon Web Services was launched. The parlance became fully mainstream when Apple launched iCloud in 2011.  

With their destination stores and beautifully designed products all synchronising with each other, Apple led the way in attracting customers who were less interested in the physical infrastructure, and more focused on their kit working, and working seamlessly. I can’t be accused of exaggeration in saying they were very successful!

The technological shift to wireless and remote storage distanced users from what goes on behind the scenes in making all this data and storage management work.

Only recently have more of the UK public realised that their photos, documents, music, social posts and GIS maps aren’t in a cloud but stored and processed on physical computer servers. Those servers are housed securely in buildings we now call data centres.

These centres are the physical manifestation of the developments in technology in our pockets and in our cars that we have all been enjoying for quite some time.  

Much as a planning application that would deliver affordable housing is objected to despite a desperate need for said housing, there is a similar pattern with data centres. Rather ironically, objections are being fuelled by social media and AI-generated opposition campaigns.  

We already rely heavily on existing digital services, and the rapid adoption of AI is increasing demand for data-centre infrastructure. Last year, the UK government designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure, putting them alongside essential services such as energy and water.  

With plenty of high-profile examples of opposition to data centres covered in the UK media recently, it is absolutely key that proposals for new centres in the UK demonstrate transparency from the outset. Going forward, the communities that may host them need to see tangible benefits beyond being able to use the digital services we already rely on.  

The immediate challenge now is to hold the types of discussions with all stakeholders in a positive way so that appropriate community benefits can be arrived at; and major opportunities for construction and engineering jobs, skills development and local supply chains can be fully capitalised on.