Latin America. For most people, the internet is fully integrated into our daily lives. For more than 30 years since it was available to the general public, it has revolutionized communication, healthcare, education, business operations, entertainment, and much more.
Today, the Internet is so ingrained in our lives and work that it seems intangible. But there's a physical world hidden behind all of our digital experiences: a world of fiber-optic cables, routers, switches, firewalls, satellites, undersea cables, and, of course, the data centers where much of the world's technological infrastructure lives.
These materials, along with the teams of engineers that keep them running, make it possible for data to move from one place to another in the blink of an eye.
The internet is central to the technologies that underpin our daily lives, including the cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). It strengthens human connection and boosts the world's economy. As we see AI being incorporated into more aspects of our lives and work, we truly live in a smart era of technological advancements, all made possible by the internet. And the backbone of all this innovation is the technological infrastructure that connects it all: a network of cables, tunnels and underwater highways through which information travels.
To help bring the invisible forces of this smart age to life, Equinix has teamed up with fashion designer Maximilian Raynor on a one-of-a-kind creation that brings the history of the internet to life, a dress made from materials used inside a data center.
The dress represents the embodiment of the internet, a complex network of physical material that has facilitated some of the greatest human achievements of our time, certainly a rare and unique piece of clothing.
Maximilian Raynor and his team created a work of art using fiber optic cables, metal washers, and screws. Weighing 25 kilograms, the piece has enough network cable to cover the length of 72 Olympic swimming pools. These network cables, along with the data centers that house them, form the backbone of all global connectivity.
While physical cables aren't what most people imagine when they think of the internet, they're an essential part of the critical infrastructure that enables digital connectivity.
Meet the Designer: Maximilian Raynor
With an aesthetic that includes experimental fabrics and unconventional materials, Maximilian Raynor was the perfect designer for the piece. The designer and his team spent 640 hours working on the project.
"As a designer, you don't need to have access to the best materials to create something beautiful. Often, unconventional materials, combined with a hands-on approach, can achieve really exciting results," said Maximilian Raynor
"The project was really educational, especially today, coming to the data center and really seeing the tangible nature of the Internet... We all think of the cloud as something that exists in the sky that isn't real, and you come here [to Equinix] and you realize that there's a material quality to all of our phones and everything we do on computers," he added.
The Crucial Role of Data Centers in the Digital Age
Data centers around the world are home to essential IT infrastructure, including networking equipment such as the fiber optic cables used in the design of Maximilian Raynor's dress. Data centers are also the place where enterprises, business partners, clouds, network service providers, and other organizations connect, interact, exchange data, and services.
The physical infrastructure of technology isn't the only hidden force behind our digital lives. There's also the talented workforce of engineers, network architects, system administrators, technicians, and other skilled professionals who keep the technology running. To learn more about the people who make our digital world possible, read the article The Intelligent Age: Bridging the Visible and Invisible in a Tech-Driven World, where we explore three key digital corridors that showcase the talented workers driving the age of intelligence.
There is no digital world without the material
Without data centers, without physical infrastructure, and without the people who run them, we wouldn't have the internet, or artificial intelligence, or any of the cutting-edge technologies that have transformed our world. The material aspects of our technological landscape make the immaterial possible: the seemingly magical network of information at our fingertips.
