Land and data-center sites, North Carolina
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What is a data center?

A data center is a building, or a room inside one, that houses servers, storage, and network equipment. It also holds the power, cooling, and security systems that keep that equipment running without a break. The label tells you how the building is owned and used, not what software it runs.

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Quick summary: This guide defines a data center, names the systems inside one, and sorts the common types. It is for residents, landowners, and local officials who meet the term at a hearing or in a letter from a buyer. The key takeaway: a data center is a building for computers and for the power, cooling, network, and security that keep them running. The label does not tell you what software runs inside.

What are data centers?

A data center is a building, or a room inside one, that houses servers, storage, and network equipment and the systems that keep them running without interruption. The International Energy Agency’s Energy and AI report defines data centers as facilities that house servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and associated components. That equipment is typically installed in racks and organized into rows. The same definition counts the auxiliary equipment that keeps it working: cooling, backup power, lighting, and office space for staff.

North Carolina law gives a stricter definition. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-164.3, a datacenter is a facility that provides infrastructure for hosting or data processing services. Its power and cooling systems must be “concurrently maintainable.” That means a crew can service any component on a planned schedule without stopping the computers. The statute also requires redundant capacity components and more than one distribution path to the equipment. The legal definition rests on one idea: the computers do not stop.

The federal industry classification describes the business, not the building. The North American Industry Classification System places these firms in industry 518210. It covers establishments that provide computing infrastructure, data processing, web hosting, and streaming support. Its examples include application hosting, cloud storage, and infrastructure as a service.

What is inside a data center

A data center holds six systems: servers, storage, network, power, cooling, and security. The first three are the information technology equipment. The other three keep that equipment working. The International Energy Agency estimates how much of a facility’s electricity each part uses.

System What it does Share of electricity
Servers Computers that process and store data About 60 percent on average
Storage Central data storage and backup About 5 percent
Network Switches, routers, and load balancers Up to 5 percent
Cooling Controls temperature and humidity About 7 percent in efficient hyperscale facilities, over 30 percent in less efficient enterprise facilities
Backup power Batteries and generators for outages Rarely used, but required

Servers and storage. Servers are the computers. Some run on central processing units alone. Others add specialized accelerators, such as graphics processing units, which often run AI training. Storage systems hold data and backups.

Network. Network equipment connects the servers to each other and to the outside world. North Carolina’s own state data centers are carrier neutral, with fiber and copper cross-connects. Carrier neutral means a tenant can choose among several network providers inside one building.

Power. A data center draws power from the utility and keeps backup on site. The state’s facilities list three redundant generators at each site, with conditioned power and an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS. The International Energy Agency notes that UPS batteries and generators are rarely used, but they keep the facility powered during an outage.

Cooling. Cooling equipment regulates temperature and humidity so the computers stay within their operating range. The state describes its facilities as cooled and humidity controlled.

Security. Physical security decides who reaches the equipment. The state lists security gates at every entrance and exit, government-issued photo ID, video surveillance at all hours, entrance personnel traps, and bulletproof glass. Tenants keep their equipment in locking cabinets with access control and an audit log.

How big a data center is

A data center can be a closet or a campus. The national laboratory report to the Department of Energy sorts United States facilities into space types by size. Network closets, server rooms, and micro data centers average under 150 square feet. Internal enterprise facilities average about 2,700 square feet. Colocation space averages about 11,000 square feet, and hyperscale facilities about 30,000 square feet per module, not per campus. The EPA’s 2007 report to Congress also counted any room devoted to data-processing servers, including server closets.

The sector as a whole is large. The Department of Energy reports that data centers used about 4.4 percent of all United States electricity in 2023. In North Carolina, the Census Bureau’s 2023 County Business Patterns counts 450 employer establishments in industry 518210. That figure counts business locations, not data-center buildings.

The types of data centers

Data-center types describe who owns the facility and who uses it, not what software runs inside. The International Energy Agency estimates each type’s share of world data-center capacity.

Enterprise. A business or institution runs the data center for its own use. The EPA’s 2007 report named financial services firms, universities, and government institutions among the operators. Enterprise facilities are typically smaller and less efficient. They hold about 28 percent of capacity, down from 85 percent in 2005.

Colocation. A provider leases space, power, and cooling, and tenants bring their own servers. A service provider supplies the space and the computers. Together these hold an estimated 36 percent of capacity. See What is a colocation data center?

Hyperscale. A large technology operator runs massive facilities for cloud services, web hosting, and, more and more, AI services. Their share grew from about 10 percent of capacity in 2010 to 37 percent. See What is a hyperscale data center?

Edge. Small facilities sit close to users. The national laboratory describes telecommunications edge sites as closets, rooms, and micro data centers placed throughout a carrier’s network.

AI-focused. These facilities hold large numbers of servers with specialized accelerators for training and running AI models. The International Energy Agency’s 2026 update estimates that their electricity use grew 50 percent in 2025. See What is an AI data center?

One facility can carry two labels. A hyperscale building can run cloud services and AI side by side. The International Energy Agency also notes that colocation operators often cannot see what their tenants run.

What a data center is not

A data center is not the same as an AI center. The International Energy Agency states that AI is only one of the workloads that run in data centers. In 2023, AI servers used more than 40 terawatt-hours of the 176 terawatt-hours that United States data centers consumed, according to the national laboratory. That is less than a quarter.

The cloud is not a place without buildings. The federal definition of cloud computing describes a physical layer of server, storage, and network hardware under every cloud service. Cloud services run in data centers.

The short version: A data center is a building for computers, designed so the computers do not stop. The type tells you who owns it and who uses it. Only the operator can tell you what a specific building will run.

What data centers do

Data centers run the services that people use each day, such as cloud services, websites, payments, emergency calls, phone networks, and streaming. What are data centers used for? lists those uses with North Carolina examples. Why do we need data centers? covers what fails when one goes down. The buildings are also older than most people think. When was the first data center built? A short history traces them to the 1960s.

North Carolina runs its own. The state’s IT department operates an Eastern Data Center and a Western Data Center and rents space in them to state and local agencies.

What the public record shows

The public record shows what a data center is in law, which systems it holds, and which types exist. It cannot show what a proposed building will run or how much power, water, and land it will need. The applicant’s filings, the serving utility, and the county’s planning and permit records answer those questions. Are data centers bad? The objections, checked against the record checks the common arguments against these buildings.

Take action: If a buyer has asked about your land, or you want to know whether a tract could hold one of these buildings, read what the public record says first. Start with Is your land a data-center site?

Key recap

  • A data center is a building or room that houses servers, storage, and network equipment, with the power, cooling, and security systems that keep them running.
  • North Carolina law defines a datacenter by power and cooling systems that a crew can service without stopping the computers.
  • Servers use about 60 percent of a typical facility’s electricity. Cooling uses from about 7 to over 30 percent, depending on the type.
  • Enterprise, colocation, hyperscale, edge, and AI-focused describe who owns and uses a facility, not what it runs.
  • AI is one workload among several. Ask the operator what a specific building will run.

Questions

What is the difference between a data center and a server room?

A server room is the smallest kind of data center. Federal studies count server closets and rooms as data centers. A purpose-built facility adds redundant power, cooling, network paths, and physical security so the equipment keeps running through a failure.

What is the difference between a data center and the cloud?

The cloud is a way to deliver computing over a network. A data center is the building where that computing runs. The federal definition of cloud computing places a physical layer of servers, storage, and network hardware under every cloud service.

How many data centers are in North Carolina?

No public record counts every data-center building in the state. The Census Bureau counted 450 employer establishments in the data processing and hosting industry in North Carolina in 2023. That figure counts business locations, not buildings.

Is every data center an AI data center?

No. AI is one workload among several, and AI servers used less than a quarter of United States data-center electricity in 2023. Some new facilities are built for AI, so ask what a specific proposal will run.

References

Primary sources cited on this page, in APA style.

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