Data centres range from vast warehouses in Iowa to a converted paper mill in Finland
Buildings are so large Google even provides bicycles for engineers to get around them
Street View tour of North Carolina facility reveals Stormtrooper standing guard
When you’re on a Google website (like right now), you’re accessing one of the most powerful server networks in the known Universe. But what does that actually look like? Here’s your chance to see inside what we’re calling the physical Internet.
most powerful search engines in the world look like from the inside? Well, turns out that even the color-coordination of the Google servers is pretty much the same as on the interface!
For the first time, Google has published some photos of what their data centers look like. The scrupulous attention for details, vast and well-organized spaces and seemingly flawless organization makes it clear how Google has achieved it’s success.
However, if you think their data centers are cool, wait till you see the inside of Google Office in Zurich.
Website: google.com
Inside our campus network room, routers and switches allow our data centers to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting our sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home Internet connection. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling.
Our Council Bluffs data center provides over 115,000 square feet of space. We make the best out of every inch, so you can use services like Search and YouTube in the most efficient way possible.
We keep pipes like these ready with highly-pressurized water in case of a fire. This water, in particular, is cleaned and filtered so if we use it, we don’t contaminate the facility.
This is a closer view of the backup tapes in our tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so our robotic system can locate the right one.+
Each of our server racks has four switches, connected by a different colored cable. We keep these colors the same throughout our data center so we know which one to replace in case of failure.
A rare look behind the server aisle. Here hundreds of fans funnel hot air from the server racks into a cooling unit to be recirculated. The green lights are the server status LEDs reflecting from the front of our servers.
An overhead view of one of our cooling plants, where seawater from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data center there.
“Server floors like these require massive space and efficient power to run the full family of Google products for the world. Here in Hamina, Finland, we chose to renovate an old paper mill to take advantage of the building’s infrastructure as well as its proximity to the Gulf of Finland’s cooling waters.”
Thousands of feet of pipe line the inside of our data centers. We paint them bright colors not only because it’s fun, but also to designate which one is which. The bright pink pipe in this photo transfers water from the row of chillers (the green units on the left) to a outside cooling tower.”
Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of our data center there begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power.
As part of our commitment to keeping our users’ data safe, we destroy all failed drives, on site.
Our pipes aren’t the only colorful things at our data centers. These cables are organized by their specific hue. On the floor, this can make things less technical: “Hand me a blue one."
These colorful pipes are responsible for carrying water in and out of our Oregon data center. The blue pipes supply cold water and the red pipes return the warm water back to be cooled.
Blue LEDs on this row of servers tell us everything is running smoothly. We use LEDs because they are energy efficient, long lasting and bright.
These colorful pipes carry water. Three of our data centers, like this one in Finland, run on 100% unprocessed or greywater. The idea behind this is simple: instead of depending on clean, potable water, we use alternative sources of water and clean it just enough so it can be used for cooling. This water still needs to be processed, but treatment for data center use is much easier than cleaning it for drinking.
In case anything should happen to our data, we have it all backed up. One of the places we back up information is here in our tape library. Robotic arms (visible at the end of the aisle) assist us in loading and unloading tapes when we need to access them.+
These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling our facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside our data centers.
Plastic curtains hang in a network room inside our Council Bluffs data center. Here we serve up cold air through the floor, and the clear plastic barriers help keep the cold air in while keeping hot air out
Insulated pipes like these have a U-bend (called this due to their shape) so they can expand and contract as the fluid temperature inside the pipe changes.
These ethernet switches connect our facilities network. Thanks to them, we are able to communicate with and monitor our main controls for the cooling system in our data center.+
Storage tanks like these can hold up to 240,000 gallons (900,000 liters) of water at any given time. This insulated tank holds water that we’ll send to the heart of the data center for cooling.+
Now that you’ve seen the inside of the Internet (our part, at least
Buildings are so large Google even provides bicycles for engineers to get around them
Street View tour of North Carolina facility reveals Stormtrooper standing guard
When you’re on a Google website (like right now), you’re accessing one of the most powerful server networks in the known Universe. But what does that actually look like? Here’s your chance to see inside what we’re calling the physical Internet.
most powerful search engines in the world look like from the inside? Well, turns out that even the color-coordination of the Google servers is pretty much the same as on the interface!
For the first time, Google has published some photos of what their data centers look like. The scrupulous attention for details, vast and well-organized spaces and seemingly flawless organization makes it clear how Google has achieved it’s success.
However, if you think their data centers are cool, wait till you see the inside of Google Office in Zurich.
Website: google.com
Inside our campus network room, routers and switches allow our data centers to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting our sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home Internet connection. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling.
Our Council Bluffs data center provides over 115,000 square feet of space. We make the best out of every inch, so you can use services like Search and YouTube in the most efficient way possible.
We keep pipes like these ready with highly-pressurized water in case of a fire. This water, in particular, is cleaned and filtered so if we use it, we don’t contaminate the facility.
This is a closer view of the backup tapes in our tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so our robotic system can locate the right one.+
Each of our server racks has four switches, connected by a different colored cable. We keep these colors the same throughout our data center so we know which one to replace in case of failure.
A rare look behind the server aisle. Here hundreds of fans funnel hot air from the server racks into a cooling unit to be recirculated. The green lights are the server status LEDs reflecting from the front of our servers.
An overhead view of one of our cooling plants, where seawater from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data center there.
“Server floors like these require massive space and efficient power to run the full family of Google products for the world. Here in Hamina, Finland, we chose to renovate an old paper mill to take advantage of the building’s infrastructure as well as its proximity to the Gulf of Finland’s cooling waters.”
Thousands of feet of pipe line the inside of our data centers. We paint them bright colors not only because it’s fun, but also to designate which one is which. The bright pink pipe in this photo transfers water from the row of chillers (the green units on the left) to a outside cooling tower.”
Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of our data center there begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power.
As part of our commitment to keeping our users’ data safe, we destroy all failed drives, on site.
Our pipes aren’t the only colorful things at our data centers. These cables are organized by their specific hue. On the floor, this can make things less technical: “Hand me a blue one."
These colorful pipes are responsible for carrying water in and out of our Oregon data center. The blue pipes supply cold water and the red pipes return the warm water back to be cooled.
Blue LEDs on this row of servers tell us everything is running smoothly. We use LEDs because they are energy efficient, long lasting and bright.
These colorful pipes carry water. Three of our data centers, like this one in Finland, run on 100% unprocessed or greywater. The idea behind this is simple: instead of depending on clean, potable water, we use alternative sources of water and clean it just enough so it can be used for cooling. This water still needs to be processed, but treatment for data center use is much easier than cleaning it for drinking.
In case anything should happen to our data, we have it all backed up. One of the places we back up information is here in our tape library. Robotic arms (visible at the end of the aisle) assist us in loading and unloading tapes when we need to access them.+
These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling our facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside our data centers.
Plastic curtains hang in a network room inside our Council Bluffs data center. Here we serve up cold air through the floor, and the clear plastic barriers help keep the cold air in while keeping hot air out
Insulated pipes like these have a U-bend (called this due to their shape) so they can expand and contract as the fluid temperature inside the pipe changes.
These ethernet switches connect our facilities network. Thanks to them, we are able to communicate with and monitor our main controls for the cooling system in our data center.+
Storage tanks like these can hold up to 240,000 gallons (900,000 liters) of water at any given time. This insulated tank holds water that we’ll send to the heart of the data center for cooling.+
Now that you’ve seen the inside of the Internet (our part, at least
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