Data centers vary in what they do. Some help companies operate during power outages or natural disasters, others provide cloud services such as e-mail and data analysis, while others coordinate mass mailings and store records. Yet all data centers tend to have many computers handling vast volumes of information traveling to and from disparate locations, which requires three things: electricity; stability; and good network connections to the outside world. Pennsylvania has these things and others, which help explain the rise of the local data industry.
