The physical reality of the digital world
In his novel The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco describes the organization, preservation of data, and access to knowledge seven centuries ago in the library of an abbey, which would eventually burn down, destroying the work of the copyist monks, the first artisans of redundancy before the invention of printing and then computing.
Michel Robert, University of Montpellier
Michael Kauffmann, Wikipedia, CC BY
This type of event has occurred throughout history, each time resulting in the loss of knowledge. The most recent episode in our era of dematerialization was the spectacular fire in Strasbourg on March 10, 2021 , at a data center— i.e., a data storage and processing center—which had significant consequences for users. This incident highlights the fragility of digital infrastructure (computers, servers, storage racks, communications networks, power supplies, air conditioning, etc.), which can lead to sometimes irreversible data loss and service interruptions (information systems, computer applications, messaging, websites, etc.).
Such an industrial accident forces us to consider the physical reality of the digital world. Over the past 40 years, this world has been built around computer machines concentrated in networks of data centers that make up the digital cloud. This seemingly immaterial "cloud" is in fact based on distributed and interconnected infrastructures on a global scale. To date, there are nearly 5,000 dedicated or shared data centers in 127 countries around the world, some of which can host tens of thousands of servers.
The history of computing is marked by alternating shifts between local and global, centralized and distributed infrastructures: centralized in the last century around a single computer, then distributed with the advent of mobile computing (PCs, tablets, smartphones, connected objects, etc.), then mixed today with services increasingly outsourced to specialized companies (GAFAM, for example) to store and process data, or communicate through social networks, or in teleworking through videoconferencing and shared documents.
How do we store data securely today?
If we look at individual use, 30 years ago data was stored on floppy disks with a capacity of 1 megabyte (106 bytes), then on CDs, USB drives, etc. Today, a personal magnetic hard drive with a capacity of 1 terabyte (1,012 bytes, or one thousand billion) – which is the size of a smartphone – is equivalent to one million floppy disks and costs just a few dozen euros. The need for long-term data backup has been obvious since the early days of computing, when hardware and software were initially unreliable.
Today, we are seeing an explosion of data linked to our usage habits, such as instant cloud backup of photos and videos taken on smartphones. We are also seeing all forms of hacking and cybercrime. Backing up data requires precautions, such as storing it in secure locations.
At the professional level, many users and companies cannot afford to have their own robust IT infrastructure, given the costs of acquisition, maintenance, security, updates, and associated human resources. They therefore turn to specialized companies that sell their expertise in data security, whether in terms of confidentiality, protection of know-how, or privacy. It should also be noted that issues of state sovereignty in terms of data access are crucial. The distribution of data and its processing on a global scale—and one day in space, with clusters of satellites establishing communications between servers—offers many advantages, provided that the physical limitations of the infrastructure used are well understood, particularly in the event of an accident.
It is therefore essential to take a critical look at current offerings: where is my data stored? How is it protected, secured, and backed up? What is the carbon footprint of my digital usage?
What are the costs of virtualizing our IT systems?
Some operators offer turnkey services that meet these requirements. Others offer lower-cost access to machines, leaving customers responsible for their own choices, for example in backup management—contracts between the parties govern the details of these uses. The concept of service quality is therefore essential.
Good communication about the technologies used and their limitations, which can sometimes be difficult for users to grasp, is essential: what levels of data protection are included in the contract I have signed? How often are backups made, and how? The CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) specifically highlights the obligations regarding notification in the event of unavailability or, in the worst case, destruction of personal data stored in a data center.
Adrian Pingstone/Wikipedia
The physical reality of the digital world also raises the question of the energy resources required for these infrastructures and our most energy-intensive uses (video streaming, virtual currency management, bitcoins). The environmental footprint of our connected digital devices and communications, computing, and storage infrastructures cannot be ignored: the overall share of "digital" in greenhouse gas emissions is increasing every year and will soon exceed 5%, with energy consumption of 2,000 terawatt-hours, or 10% of global electricity demand.
Technical solutions
Scientific and technological solutions are emerging to support and ensure the reliability of the digital and energy transitions, which are inextricably linked.
This could, for example, lead to "short digital circuits" for reliability and backup, associated with each data center and making use of older generations of computer machines that run exclusively on green energy. These machines could be distributed across a region, which would limit the impact of an industrial accident at a given site by leveraging machine redundancy to ensure backups.
Indeed, a service based on redundant IT resources is always better than irreversible loss of digital data in the event of an accident, whether for private or professional use. For many applications that do not require high-performance computing, or for local management of data and services offered to users on a territory or a smart city, it is conceivable to combine data production and storage with green energy in a "short digital circuit," whether in terms of heat recovery or production ofrenewable electricity.
Michel Robert, Professor of Microelectronics, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.