The internet does not have a physical home. It uses a collection of servers around the world to process huge amounts of data. These traffic centers are officially called internet exchanges. Sometimes they are also described as the cloud, a non-physical name for wheredigitalinformation is stored. While these internet exchanges can be found in different places around the world, some of them are much bigger than others. And, one of the largest is in the American state of Virginia. The town of Ashburn is about 50 kilometers outside Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County. The area is home to more than 100 internet data centers. Operators of the internet exchange say about 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic passes through equipment in the area. Some of the equipment is kept in large buildings. Data also flows through a huge collection of undergroundcables. The cables are made offiber opticmaterial.