In addition to my editing duties, I have written Buzzblog since January, 2006. Feel free to e-mail me at buzz@nww.com.
Guided tour of a Google data center
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Sure it’s Google propaganda, but it’s interesting Google propaganda.
Joe Kava, VP of Google's data center operations, walks us through a company facility in Berkeley County, South Carolina (I’ve provided a few highlights under the video for those who can’t or don’t want to watch):
Highlights:
Only a small percentage of Google employees are authorized to even enter a data center campus.
Yes, the building has a foosball table.
Employees use scooters to traverse the massive building, at least when filming videos.
“We just went past the 3-million man-hour mark for zero loss-time,” says a Googler. “Three million man hours is a really long time and with the number of people we have on site that is an amazing accomplishment.”
“Protecting the security and the privacy of our users’ information is our foremost design criteria,” Kava says with a straight face.
The facility's multi-layered security include badges, biometric iris scanners, and “under-floor intrusion detection via laser beams.”
The data center temperature is a toasty 80 degrees. “Google runs our data centers warmer than most,” says Kava, “because it helps with the efficiency.”
Server racks are custom-designed and built.
When drives fail “they are brought to an ultra-secure cage where they are erased and crushed if necessary.”
More info on the data center here. Pretty pictures here.
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Erik Solheim