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Seth Weintraub

Apple versus Google

Video: Take a look inside a Google data center

3 comments

TAGS:cooling, data center, Google, Video
IT TOPICS:Linux, Mainframes & Supercomputers, Operating Systems, Servers & Data Center

Google has been opening up lately with their data center technology. Today, they've posed a quick tour of one of their monster data center facilities. This is where the magic happens.

A few observations:

The water pipes are painted in Google colors
At this facility, there are 45 containers with more that 1000 servers per container. They are water cooled.
Each container could be put on a truck and sent off to another station
Cooling uses a lot of energy and space. Using water is smart
Employees are given "Google provided transportation" Razor scooters to get around.
Overall the place looks a bit like a Soviet nuclear missile installation
It appears that Google is trying to share their data center knowledge with the world in order to help people cut costs and run more efficiently.

Bonus Video: Google updated Mobile Gmail and Calendar for iPhone and Android

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Nice video, I just wonder

Submitted by Anonymous on April 11, 2009 - 10:41 A.M.

Nice video, I just wonder why they don't make better use of the heat exhaust. Why not extract the heat to generate electricity? Or is the water not warm enough to make that worthwhile?
Or why not store heat in the ground and use it as heating source for buildings in the area? I am sure they need hot water and heating.

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It's the temp difference ...

Submitted by Anonymous on April 15, 2009 - 5:51 A.M.

The short answer is that the heat energy is low-grade energy (as opposed to electrical or chemical) and the temperature different likely isn't high enough. Efficiency and power output are related to the temperature difference, which is why power plants need cooling towers and / or large bodies of water near them.

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Example of Why Cloud Based Computing is Smart

Submitted by walter jeske on April 8, 2009 - 4:16 P.M.

The attention to detail that Google has paid to data center infrastructure (HVAC, power, etc) along with the advantages of scale they have, provides efficiency levels most organizations could only dream of.
The way Google (along Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, etc) is much more efficient and cost effective than most of us can provide\justify for our own organizations. This is an example of why cloud computing begins to make sense and maybe the realiziation of Carr's vision of IT just being similar to the power grid - it just works.

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