Inside a Chicago data center powering everyday online life

CHICAGO - We continue our series on data centers across Chicagoland. We take you inside one near McCormick Place.

FOX Chicago’s Bret Buganski shows us why demand for data is pushing these facilities to their limits.

The backstory:

From East Coast to West Coast, located on the Near South Side, just feet away from McCormick Place, in a building that used to print telephone books and shopping catalogs, is the evolution of how we live and where we get information.

Rafal Rak is the Senior Vice President of Hyperscale Investment, Leasing and Development at Digital Realty. They have over 300 data centers worldwide, on six continents, including nine in the Chicago area. Two of them are in downtown Chicago.

Rak and his team took us inside Digital Realty's 1.1 million square feet of space and showed us where that information moves through the internet in the form of "racks" or "data cabinets."

This is where you'll see routers, modems and wires.

So, why this space?

"Chicago Mercantile Exchange had their servers here for their high-frequency trading and connecting back to their trading floor. So it really had the bones and the structure and the internet infrastructure that was here that made it valuable for its evolution into what it is today," Rak said.

You may not realize it, but much of what we do every day involves a data center. We don't use floppy disks or CDs to store information anymore.

Most of us have a cellphone, so when you scroll through social media, write an email, shop online, order medicine and call 9-1-1, you're accessing information and it has to go somewhere.

"The closer the data and the data centers are to the community that it supports… [the] easier [it is] for the customers to view what they're wanting to view without any sort of… negative impact," Rak said.

This is a 24-hour operation, for not only the racks inside but the cooling tank outside, holding 8.5 million gallons of liquid.

"It produces cold brine, which is essentially a salty water that's cooled down to the freezing temperature and is distributed to our data center, but also to nearby hotels and the convention center," Rak said.

So, this isn't using fresh water from, let's say, Lake Michigan?

"No, it doesn't use any fresh water directly from Lake Michigan. It's a closed-loop system, which means you fill it once and you seal it off and you don't use anymore water," Rak said.

Dig deeper:

Digital Realty's power comes through ComEd, the primary electric utility in Chicago and northern Illinois. One of the criticisms for data centers is how much power it uses and how that cost can be shared to your utility bill.

"With the shifting energy landscape, it is imperative that our growth does not undermine affordability and stability for our families," said Gov. JB Pritzker.

Last month, Pritzker announced a two-year pause on tax incentives for new data centers in response to the rise of new ones going up in places like Aurora, Joliet and Yorkville, and how it affects affordability where you live.

Fair criticism?

"Not so much. I mean, I think we, at least from our experience and our goal when we enter a new market or when we are looking to establish or grow in a particular market, is that we want to pay our fair share for the infrastructure that's needed to support this particular data center and investing and partnering closely with ComEd and the utility. So that is not the case that the consumer, regular consumer, takes on a larger burden of infrastructure upgrades that are needed," Rak said.

He added, "Our sites here are 100% backed by green energy. We've signed long-term contracts with wind and solar farms here in the state of Illinois to support the capacity that we need to support our data centers."

However, does Rak also see it from the perspective of a viewer out there who is struggling to make ends meet? That they see their electric bill and go, well, this is the work of data centers.

"Definitely, and I understand that concern because you're starting to see them more and more in your day-to-day life, especially with the proliferation of AI and cloud computing, etc., that the size and scales of these buildings is becoming more prominent and visible in the local community," Rak said.

While companies like Digital Realty argue it's meeting a growing demand, there's another criticism, which is noise.

We've reported on sites like in Aurora where some residents complained about generators running so loudly, it wakes them up in the middle of the night.
At this data center, it's in an area of the city where, by its very nature, gets loud.

"I will say, even for data centers that are built in suburban communities or further outside, our goal from the early stages of our design is to make sure the infrastructure that we're installing has proper sound attenuation, proper emissions controls, so that it minimizes any impact to the local community," Rak said.

We asked, do you see yourselves outgrowing the space because of the demand?

"We do. This building is predominantly full today," Rak said.

One possible solution, which may have critics even more concerned, is converting vacant office spaces downtown into data centers.

It comes down to this.

"The most recent wave, as most people know, is AI and increasing demand for AI applications and solutions," said Aaron Binkley, vice president of sustainability for Digital Realty. "And so we are, you know, actively looking at continuing to expand in the city of Chicago and in Illinois."

As you heard, there are concerns about constraints in regard to how much space is available, especially with the rise of AI. There's still a big unknown about what data centers will look like in the next five years, especially with technology getting better.

What's next:

In Part 3 of our series, you will hear from some consumer experts about where these increases in your utility bills are coming from.