Data Centers: The Foundation of Modern Databases

Before diving into IO costs and algorithms, see where it all happens. Every SQL query you run executes inside massive data centers around the world.

Google Data Centers

Take a virtual tour of Google's data centers that power BigQuery, Cloud SQL, and Spanner.

Microsoft Azure Documentary

Behind-the-scenes look at Azure's infrastructure that runs SQL Database, Cosmos DB, and Synapse Analytics.

What's Next?

Now dive into the technical details:

1. Storage & Paging - How databases organize data on disk

2. IO Cost Model - Why some operations are 1000× faster than others