Why Amazon's Data Centers Are Hidden in Spy Country

I wasn't aware that Amazon was so secretive about its data centers. This is definitely one of the more interesting things you will read all day.

Unlike Google and Facebook, AWS doesn’t aggressively brand or call attention to their data centers. They absolutely don’t give tours, and their website offers only rough approximations of the locations of their data centers, which are divided into “regions.” Within a region lies at minimum two “availability zones” and within the availability zones there are a handful of data centers.

I actually know where one of theirs is in NoVa. It is near where I work. Very low key and most people do not know. They are trying to add another one which is causing quite the stir around here because they have to extend power lines to its remote location and the locals are fighting running the power lines through their land.

Why are they trying to hide them? And for what purpose? I didn't think they would have anything to hide...

Steve said:

This is definitely one of the more interesting things you will read all day.

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Perhaps if I was having a really slow day.

ShagnWagn said:

Why are they trying to hide them? And for what purpose? I didn't think they would have anything to hide...

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CIA runs through Amazon for part of their systems. Why publish your location when you don't have to.

Google is very hush hush about there locations as well as there methods of cooling there data centers. They go by different names when constructing even their vehicles are displayed with the pseudo name. Very interesting.

Bigdady92 said:

CIA runs through Amazon for part of their systems. Why publish your location when you don't have to.

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When I worked there, there was more than just the CIA for government agencies. All fenced and locked off from access from the rest of the data center.

If you want to know the general location, look at their job listings. It'll list my town as the location. Go to the town, and it's obvious which buildings they are. If you don't know, ask. Everyone knows. We've got 5 here, and a couple about 20 miles away.

I did get a tour, though, when I wanted to work there. I had emailed the guy asking for the job, etc.. He said he'd love to give me a tour sometime. I showed up the next day to introduce myself personally, and he gave me a tour. Now that it's fully operational, it might be a bit more difficult (it was still in the construction phase, with servers just starting to go into the first part). That was the first DC here. Now, we have 5, multiple trailers (perdix)... They are expanding bigtime.