by Andrew Blum
the “Most Downloaded Woman”: Guinness World Records, Guinness World Records 2004 (New York: Guinness, 2003).
4: The Whole Internet
In the complicated and nuanced realm of Internet peering, I was grateful for the hours many people spent helping me to understand, in particular: Anton Kapela, Martin Levy of Hurricane Electric, Joe Provo, Ren Provo, Jim Cowie of Renesys, Jon Nistor, Josh Snowhorn, Daniel Golding of DH Capital, Sylvie LaPerrière, Michael Lucking, Rob Seastrom, Jay Hanke, Patrick Gilmore, and Steve Wilcox. In Frankfurt, several people opened the doors to their pieces of the Internet: Frank Orlowski and Arnold Nipper at DE-CIX; Martin Simon at Global Crossing; and Michael Boehlert at Ancotel. Nikolaus Hirsch shared his crucial insights about the spirit of the city. In Amsterdam, Job Witteman, Henk Steenman, and Cara Mascini made sure I understood every part of AMS-IX’s operation; Kees Neggers shared his knowledge about the history of the Internet in the Netherlands (and a great Indonesian restaurant); and Marc Gauw of NL-ix and Serge Radovic of Euro-IX brought a broader context to the world of Internet exchanges. Martin Brown was an enthusiastic fellow traveler on the walking tour of Amsterdam’s data centers.
As the website Wired.com explained: Tony Long, “It’s Just the ‘internet’ Now,” Wired News, August 16, 2004 (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64596).
The writer Christine Smallwood: Christine Smallwood, “What Does the Internet Look Like?,” Baffler 2, no. 1 (2010): 8.
“I wish,” she concludes, “the Internet looked like Matt Damon: Ibid., p. 12.
On the episode of the television cartoon South Park: South Park, “Over Logging,” Season 12, Episode 6, originally aired on April 16, 2008.
The British sitcom The IT Crowd: The IT Crowd, “The Speech,” Series 3, Episode 4, originally aired on December 12, 2008.
extraordinary scene in Henry Adams’s strange third-person autobiography: Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), p. 380.
In his book The Island at the Center of the World: Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World (New York: Vintage, 2004), p. 28.
“In the Netherlands, forts, canals, bridges, roads and ports…”: Jaap van Till, Felipe Rodriquez, and Erik Huizer, “Elektronische snelweg moet hogere politieke prioriteit krijgen,” NRC Handelsblad, August 21, 1997 (http://www.nrc.nl/W2/Nieuws/1997/08/21/Med/06.html).
a wonderful essay by the artist Robert Smithson: Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum, December 1967.
5: Cities of Light
At Brocade, Greg Hankins quickly arranged a visit, and Par Westesson was the ideal guide inside the machine. In New York, Ilissa Miller and Jaymie Scotto opened many doors, and I was especially grateful for their introduction to the inimitable Hunter Newby, who happily shared his insight and gave a great walking tour of Lower Manhattan. Michael Roark and Tesh Durvasula turned the lights on in some dark corners of the city’s Internet. Victoria O’Kane and Ray La Chance happily accommodated my interest in seeing fiber-optic cables being laid, while Brian Seales and Eddie Diaz made it a fun night on the streets. John Gilbert at Rudin Management keeps the history alive at 32 Avenue of the Americas. In London, I’m grateful for the time and assistance of Tim Anker of the Colocation Exchange; Pat Vicary at Tata; John Souter, Jeremy Orbell, and Colin Silcock at the London Internet Exchange; Nigel and Benedicte Titley; Dionne Aiken, Michelle Reid, and Bob Harris at Telehouse; and Matthew Finnie and Mark Lewis at Interoute. James Tyler and Rob Coupland at Telecity spent the better part of a day showing off their impressive pieces of the Internet.
In his essay, “Nature”: Stephen E. Whicher, Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Organic Anthology (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957), p. 24.
Google announced the purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue: Rich Miller, “Google Confirms Purchase of 111 8th Avenue,” Data Center Knowledge (http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/12/22/google-confirms-purchase-of-111-8th-avenue/).
the “Ninth Avenue fiber highway”: The phrase caught on among real estate people and spread to the colocation providers. See, for example, Telx’s website (http://www.telx.com/Facilities/telxs-new-york-city-colocation-a-interconnection-facility.html).
a four-inch-diameter conduit will cost: Empire City Subway’s rates have not changed since 1987 (http://www.empirecitysubway.com/ratesbill.html).
“Without a single hitch…”: “195 Broadway Deserted,” New York Times, June 29, 1914.
an urban landscape lifted from the pages: J. G. Ballard, High Rise (London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 8.
“Major colocation companies such as Telehouse…”: David Leppard, “Al-Qaeda Plot to Bring Down UK Internet,” Sunday Times, March 11, 2007 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1496831.ece).
6: The Longest Tubes
In human terms, the world of undersea cables is an intimate one, and many people happily shared their knowledge and opened their facilities. At Global Crossing—now Level 3—Kate Rankin championed my interest to her colleagues, who collectively spent days answering my questions. In Rochester, Jim Watts, Mary Hughson, Louis LaPack, Mike Duell, and Nels Thompson provided the background info. Then in Cornwall, Jol Paling shared his beautiful part of the world. The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum is an invaluable resource for the history of undersea cables; archivist Alan Renton became a friend in the valley. At Hibernia Atlantic, Bjarni Thorvardarson welcomed me in and Tom Burfitt gave a great tour. At Tata Communications, Simon Cooper allowed everything to happen, most especially the chance to watch a cable land on the beach; his colleagues Janice Goveas, Paul Wilkinson, Rui Carrilho, and Anisha Sharma made it work. At TE Subcom, Courtney McDaniel arranged fascinating and hugely informative visits with Neal Bargano in Eatontown and Colin Young in Newington. Tom Standage’s The Victorian Internet (New York: Walker, 2007) and John Steele Gordon’s A Thread Across the Ocean (New York: Walker, 2002) filled in the fascinating history, while Richard Elliott at Apollo brought it up to the present. And every word written about this topic owes a debt to Neal Stephenson’s epic 1996 article for Wired, “Mother Earth Mother Board” (available at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html).
In their continental scale, they invoked: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953), p. 159.
In 2004, Tata paid $130 million: Ken Belson, “Tyco to Sell Undersea Cable Unit to an Indian Telecom Company,” New York Times, November 2, 2004 (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/business/02tyco.html).
CEO Dennis Kozlowski—who was convicted of grand larceny: “Top Ten Crooked CEOs,” Time, June 9, 2009 (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1903155_1903156_1903152,00.html).
The engineer’s report of the “Porthcurnow—Gibraltar No. 4 Cable”: Available at the archives of the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum.
7: Where Data Sleeps
Any journalist who has waded into the world of data centers quickly learns that the gold standard for coverage is Rich Miller’s blog, Data Center Knowledge. His posts were a constant source of news and context, and I’m grateful for his friendly support of this project. At Facebook, Ken Patchett told me everything I wanted to know and more, while Lee Weinstein kept him talking. In The Dalles, Nolan Young told a straight story, on short notice. At Google, I’m grateful to Kate Hurowitz for opening the door (if only slightly), and to Dave Karlson, Katy Bowman, Josh Betts, and Marta George for their time. Michael Manos—employed by AOL when we spoke—is an unmatched participant and observer of the industry. In Virginia, Dave Robey at QTS and Norm Laudermilch at Terremark happily shared their respectively monstrous data centers, with welcome assistance from their colleagues Kevin O’Neill and Xavier Gonzalez.
2 percent of the world’s electricity usage: Greenpeace International, “How Dirty Is Your Data?,” April 21, 2011 (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/How-dirty-is-your-data/).
In 2011, Facebook reported: Facebook engineer Justin M
itchell provided the number on the website Quora, January 25, 2011 (http://www.quora.com/How-many-photos-are-uploaded-to-Facebook-each-day).
Google confirms at least one billion searches per day: Matt McGee, “By The Numbers: Twitter Vs. Facebook Vs. Google Buzz,” Search Engine Land, February 23, 2010 (http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709).
Its total cost was $1.8 million: For an account of Google’s arrival in The Dalles, see Steven Levy, In the Plex (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), pp. 192–95.
“It was visionary—this little town…”: Ibid., p. 192.
I’d even read a little note about it: The site has since been changed, but it was accessible as of June 2011 at http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenter/index.html; a copy is preserved here: http://kalanaonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/where-is-your-data-google-and-microsoft.html.
Where Google had kept everything top secret: John Markoff and Saul Hansell, “Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power,” New York Times, June 14, 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html).
“It’s time to stop treating data centers like Fight Club”: Maggie Shiels, “Facebook Shares Green Data Centre Technology,” BBC News, April 8, 2011 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13010766).
Facebook had come under fire from Greenpeace: Elizabeth Weingarten, “Friends Without Benefits,” Slate, March 7, 2011 (http://www.slate.com/id/2287548/).
Index
The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.
Abbate, Janet, 35–36, 54
AC-1 (underseas cable). See Atlantic Crossing-1
Adams, Henry, 143–44
Adams, Rick, 60
ADC, 97
Adelson, Jay
DEC and, 76, 87, 88
at Digg, 72, 93
Equinix and, 72, 76–77, 91, 93–94, 95, 98
MAE-East and, 73, 88–89
as NANOG member, 121
at Netcom, 73, 92
openness of Internet and, 74
PAIX and, 72, 76–77, 81, 82–85, 86–87, 88
professional background of, 72–73, 74–75
reputation of, 72
Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), 40
Africa, 191–92, 196–97, 219–20, 226. See also South Africa; WACS
Air Force, US, 42
“Airworld,” 38
al-Qaeda: LINX and, 185–86
Alcatel-Lucent, 221, 223, 225
Alston, Andrew, 192–93
Alternet, 75
Amazon.com, 129
America Online, 56, 57
Ameritech, 64
Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX)
Blum’s visit to, 146–47, 154–56
and characteristics of large exchanges, 112
characteristics of, 155, 181, 253
core of, 130–31, 150, 155–56
DE-CIX and, 133–35, 145
Dutch government and, 147
history of, 132–33
as logical center of Internet, 147
peering and, 128, 130, 131
Qatar Telecom and, 139
routers at, 157
traffic at, 133–34
undersea cables and, 197
Witteman-Blum discussion about, 132–35
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Blum’s visit to, 148–56
data centers/storage near, 150–54
structure of Internet and, 27
See also Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX)
Andreesen, Marc, 57
Antonio (foreman), 220
Apple, 147
Army, US, 52, 61
ARPANET
as communications tool, 50–51
DEC node on, 74
directory for, 51–52
electronic rules for, 53
history/expansion of Internet and, 39–49, 53, 54, 55
as international, 50
as US government property, 51–52
Ashburn, Virginia, Equinix in
appearance of, 253
Blum’s connection to, 266
Blum’s visit to, 90–103
expansion of, 91, 118
fail-safe at, 100, 101
fiber vaults at, 101–3, 105–6
importance of, 117
Internet connection to earth at, 102–3, 105–6
man-trap at, 93–95, 103
as network crossroads, 26
number of visitors to, 100
openness of Internet and, 117
peering and, 122, 127, 128
Qatar Telecom and, 139
security at, 93
site selection for, 89–90, 109
Ashe, Danni, 83
Ask Jeeves, 57
Ask.com, 235, 250
AT&T
Cablevision connection to, 266
as content provider, 79
design of telephone system and, 55
history of Internet and, 43, 50
on Long Island, 216–17
NANOGers at, 121
in New York City, 166, 172–73, 175, 176, 178
in Oregon, 252
PAIX and, 84
Tata as competition for, 196
Atlantic Crossing-1 “AC-1” (undersea cable), 202–3, 211–12, 216–17, 218
Auer, Jon, 21–25, 29–30, 61
Austin, Texas: NANOG meeting in, 119–23, 128–35, 157
Australia, 83, 204
Avery, Al, 87–88
Azurro HD, 177
backhaul, 214, 215, 237
backplane, 160
Ballard, J. G., 181–82, 183
Bamford, James, 63
Baran, Paul, 42
Bargisen, Nina, 129
BARRNet, 53, 75
Bell Canada, 79
Bell Labs, 175
Benjamin, Walter, 47
Betts, Josh, 244, 245, 246, 247
Big Eddy substation (Oregon), 237, 241
Bolt, Beranek and Newman (engineering firm), 39, 43, 49, 53
Bonneville Dam: Blum visit to, 249–50
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), 228, 234, 235, 237, 238, 249, 250–51
Boston, Massachusetts: history of Internet and, 50
Bowman, Katy, 244
Brin, Sergey, 69–70
Briston, England: undersea cables and, 197
British Telecom, 184, 185, 208–9, 210, 253
broadband bubble, 56, 89
Brocade, 121, 155, 157–58, 159–63, 188
Brown, Martin, 151–54, 155
BTNet, 185
Cable & Wireless, 204–5, 210
Cablevision, 91–92, 99, 264, 265–66
Carlos (equipment operator), 221
Carrilho, Rui, 217–22, 225–26, 267
“cascading cable tray system,” 82
Casey, Edward, 37
CBS Interactive, 58
Celilo Converter Station (Oregon), 228
cell phones: evolution of Internet and, 46–47
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 63
Centurylink, 102
Cerf, Vint, 45
Chicago, Illinois, 128, 266
“Chicago problem,” 109–10, 111, 130
child pornography, 133
China, 199–200, 257
China Telecom, 19
Chunghwa Telecom, 200
Churchill, Winston, 54
Cisco, 24, 79–80, 87, 101, 121, 158
Clark, Jim, 57
cloud
characteristics of Internet and, 4
and data as abstraction not physical reality, 240
data centers as, 259
as image of Internet, 6
Cogent (Internet provider), 24, 25, 30, 123–24, 151
Collet, Bob, 60
Comcast, 121, 122
comedy: Internet portrayal in, 107–8
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, US Senate, 5
>
Communications Research and Development Command, US Army, 52
Compaq Corporation, 86, 256–57
competition
data centers and, 232, 239, 240
among Internet exchanges, 133–35
Tata and, 196
Congress, US, 63
connections
disconnect as result of, 71
importance of, 80
of Internet to earth, 101–3