The Truth About Data Centers: Why They Matter Today

DataBank has published the second article in its series, “The Truth About Data Centers,” addressing community concerns and facts about data centers.

• Main announcement/action: DataBank publishes the second article in the series to directly address community concerns about energy costs, water use, noise, and neighborhood impact; the piece cites 27.5 billion hours of video streamed daily, $6.8 trillion global e-commerce in 2025, and that more than one in three people in major economies now use generative AI (with business adoption having more than doubled in two years). The article links to the full eBook and notes this is the second installment; the next article will examine the relationship between data centers and household electricity bills.
• Background and details: The article emphasizes that data centers underpin routine services (alarms, banking apps, streaming, navigation, healthcare systems) and lists concrete service failures that would occur without them (stock markets halt, payroll systems offline, 911 on backup protocols, hospitals reverting to paper). It cites sources for statistics (AnythingCounter, Evoca, ChainStoreAge, OECD) and frames the piece as fact-based explanation rather than speculation.