Data centers have grown immense. Our need for quicker and larger amounts of data and the level of refinement of it to make much more reliable, detailed and informed decisions has made it critical for the centers to keep growing to the immense proportions they have now.

Companies like Facebook – which have billions of users across the globe and still see a rapid increase in the number of people signing up for their goods/products and services – have had no other option than to go ahead and build their own centers simply because there aren’t any companies that can provide them with the data handling capabilities they require and a scalability rate than can keep up with their exponential growth.

And so, data centers grew and continued to grow until we had the monstrosities that are humming across the world today.

Many people are curious about the just how big the world’s largest data centers are. Well, we have compiled a list of the ones that have been named so in a list – but it should be known that there could be some data center companies or owners who would not want to be known or even ranked, for their own particular reasons – mainly security.

And so, without any further ado, the largest data centers are:

        1.Range International Information Hub (numbered “0” because it will be coming online this year)

It doesn’t come as much surprise that it is the Chinese who will pretty soon have the largest data center in the world. The country’s rapid economic growth in the past few decades has made it essential to have immense sizes and amounts of data made easily and quickly available; that, and the fact that the country is home to the largest population on the planet, of course makes it a necessity to handle all that data.

Located in Langfang, the data center will lie on about 6.3 million square feet once it is completed this year – that, incidentally, is the size of the Pentagon. The center will be built to primarily give data support to the Langfang economic development zone nearby as well as other government agencies. It will also help in increasing the demand for cloud computing and mobile devices.

The data center is currently being built with the collaboration of IBM which has provided design services, tech-knowhow, trainings, solutions and business applications.

       2. Switch SuperNAP

This monster of a data center lies on 3.5 million sq. feet in Las Vegas, Nevada and is the world’s largest data center. It was built on the specific location it finds itself on because it was thought to be the safest place and would help prevent its destruction by natural disasters.

Switch, Ltd., the company that owns the data center, is mighty proud of the fact that it is the “most cost-efficient, mission critical, high-availability technology environment on the planet.”

That truly should be the case because their client list includes the crème-de-la-crème of the tech industry: eBay, Google, Cisco, PayPal, Boeing, Verizon… and many more top-rankers.

         3. Utah Data Center

Located in Camp Williams, near Bluffdale, Utah this data center is built on a sprawling 1.5 million sq. ft. Although the name Utah Data Center sounds a bit too generic, it looks like it was adopted to avoid having to use its actual name: “Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Centre for the US Intelligence Community.”

Hmmm… quite a mouthful, isn’t it?

But, as you might have figured out, whatever it is that the data center is used for it is obviously all kept hush-hushed.

What is known is that it was completed in 2014, at a price tag that ran up to $1.5 billion. Estimates put its data storage capacity at about 3 – 12 Exabyte at the time of its opening.

         4. Lakeside Technology Center

This data center is a telecom hub and is the property of Digital Realty Trust – a Schneider Electric customer. It is located in Chicago, Illinois and has a campus that is 1.1 million sq. ft. wide.

Among the things that make this giant center unique is the fact that there are 53 generators on standby alone, and they don’t come cheap. The bill for cooling fluids alone needs to cover 8.5 million gallons per year – and that is just the backups!

Companies like IBM, CenturyLink, and Facebook are some of the more known clients of this center.

         5.Tulip Data Center

This data center is located in Bangalore, India and is on a campus that is 1 million sq. ft. wide. It is, currently the only non-USA-located data center that is on this list and the largest in the whole of Asia (until the Chinese launch theirs, i.e.)

Built in 2012, the data center belongs to Tulip Telecom and is said to be one of the most secure places anyone can find in the subcontinent – with rumors having it that the security personnel are paid much more than most of the staff.