Inside Google's Data Centers

[Ben]

Apparently Google rarely allows photographs to be taken, but here are some:

https://uzo.jux.com/593507#

[Monkeyleg]

I'm surprised they allowed even that to get out. Their security is much tighter than even the CIA's

[MillCreek]

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/10/ff-inside-google-data-center/

The article is really cool.

[HankB]

Why am I thinking "Skynet" . . .

[TechMan]

http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/index.html#/ - Actual Google post about their data centers.

[TechMan]

I like this little quote in regards to how many servers:

There are 49,923 operating in the Lenoir facility on the day of my visit.

[Scout26]

Where every bit of data about you and your life is stored.

[Fitz]

Where every bit of data about you and your life is stored.

No way only apple is evil like that. Google and android are the tech messiahs and do no wrong

[Ben]

No way only apple is evil like that. Google and android are the tech messiahs and do no wrong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oyNGlCaifA&feature=related

[kgbsquirrel]

Why am I thinking "Skynet" . . .

You're not the only one. My first thought was "huh, so that's what skynet looks like."

[Blakenzy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBCY4xR9TFk

[GigaBuist]

I'm surprised they allowed even that to get out. Their security is much tighter than even the CIA's

They've been fairly open recently about how their data centers run.  Mostly focusing on the energy saving stuff they've done, like making everything 12V, ditching any 5V lines on a motherboard, giving every machine a 12V battery, and dumping the traditional giant UPS design that turned everything back into 110 or 220 only to be converted back by the PCs power supply to 12V/5V.

It's good stuff and I'm glad they're sharing.

[Ben]

I'm actually quite interested in this whole movement by the big guys with these big server farms (to veer my own thread) to up the temperatures to the ~80deg range (as Google mentioned doing in the video). For so long it's been all about keeping them in the chilly range to extend hardware life. That seems to be going out the window.

I wonder how much of it is "the servers can handle it" and how much of it is them figuring the good press of being "environmental" is worth some early hardware deaths?

That said, two of the servers I maintain at work sit in a crappy server closet with no real environmental controls and have been running with the ambient closet temp in the high 70's to low 80's for five years.

[Gewehr98]

I'm surprised they allowed even that to get out. Their security is much tighter than even the CIA's

O RLY?   

[Monkeyleg]

GW98, have you ever seen a leaked Google document in the New York Times or anywhere else? It just doesn't happen. The CIA? The White House? All the time. And many Google employees and ex-employees have plenty of reason to leak information. Other companies are victims of information leak, but never Google.

They use some sophisticated bio screening devices for entry into sensitive areas. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same sort of equipment used by the CIA.

[French G.]

Hack google's internal water control computer system, destroy the intertubez. If Stuxnet can get into Iran this is only a matter of time.

[Gewehr98]

Just sayin'...

When I had to work with the boys in Langley, it was an SSBI investigation, TS-SCI access, and lifestyles polygraph before getting read in to my program.

Suppose Google requires the same?   

BTW, those "leakers" are more often than not Senate staffers and their bosses.

We got tired of it after a while, and came up with a trick.  I actually worded each outbound report from my unit slightly differently, knowing which routing those individual reports took inside the Beltline, and we used that via CNN to find out who leaked what.

What really got our dander up was that elected officials do not undergo security clearance checks prior to joining committees with access to sensitive programs.  They get briefings from the 3-letter agencies, and then blab to their little heart's content.  The info is just something they can leverage for political gain, not unlike a UN demarche.

Go figure.