New Channel 4 Comedy To Be Set On A Data Centre In Space

Ben Sullivan,

Blog: Adam Buxton and co. to look after world’s porn and kittens from orbiting data centre…but soon, data storage may be no laughing matter

A science-fiction comedy set on a data centre orbiting the Earth is set to air on Channel 4 this year.

The show will be called The Cloud and is being co-written by comedians Graham Linehan (the brains behind Father Ted) and Adam Buxton. The Cloud will feature characters whose job it is to protect the large swathes of pornography, selfies, and pictures of kittens archived by humanity, said Channel 4.

data centreCloud Station 13

“The job of Cloud Station 13 is to protect the vast amounts of information the human population now hoards on its endless devices,” the channel’s website said.

“The disparate group who man the hub are anything but technical whizzes; which would matter less if technology – including a largely voice activated ship – was a little more reliable.”

Filming will commence in Spring 2015, with the cast comprising of Buxton himself, Aisling Bea, and Jamie Demetriou.

Looking ahead?

Of course, it may be comedy now, but in just a few years’ time, running data centres to keep up with the hordes of photos, webpages, and porn created by smartphones, tablets, and cloud storage will be no laughing matter.

As of 2013, IT accounted for 10 percent of the world’s energy consumption, and data centres are data centrethe main culprit. With most tech firms now predicting up to 50 billion connected devices by 2020, energy consumption via data storage is only set to increase.

A report into the matter released last year by Bank of America Merrill Lynch said: “The growth in big data has seen an associated boom in data centres – facilities used to house computer systems and associated components (i.e. telecommunications and storage system, redundant/backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, cooling, and safety and security devices).”

The report claims that more than half of power used by data centres is channelled to cooling systems, and that the average data centre uses 40 times more energy than an office building. Green data centres are the talk of the town this year, and for good reason to, because if we run out of power then we run out of kittens.

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