Data center workers — the unsung ‘essential workforce’

Clap for carers” has become a symbolic gesture of support for healthcare workers on the ‘frontline’ during the Covid-19 crisis, but also for the other essential workers keeping day-to-day services running. From New York to London to Milan, citizens are open their front doors, hang out of windows or stand on balconies to applaud and bang pots and pans for those keeping supermarkets stocked, the delivery drivers, the refuse collectors – the people keeping the lights on and water running. As the workforce goes remote and we become more reliant on cloud services than ever before, there is another chunk of essential workers that we may not consider as readily: those working in the data centers.