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A Look At Google's Newest Data Center 75
miller60 writes "Google doesn't allow the public inside its secret data centers. But a recent groundbreaking event at the company's new South Carolina data center provided glimpses of the exterior of the facility, which shows a design that has evolved since Google's Oregon data center made front page news. A new feature: an open, lighted area resembling a parking deck (containers?). Still missing: moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser beams on their head."
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Re: sarah (Score:1, Funny)
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free rats and free water for every citizen!
I suspect that will be a good campaign promise for the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
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moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser beams (Score:5, Funny)
Question2: Assuming the affirmative to question one, how good is your average shark at aiming them?
Re:moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser be (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser be (Score:5, Funny)
I think in actual operation the sharks would poke their
head out of the water (like Flipper the dolphin) to fire
the laser. I'm pretty sure the sharks would require special
goggles to aim accurately in the air.
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Everyone keeps assuming the sharks will control the laser beams. Why not a laser-emitting weapon that instead uses the shark as a biological guidance and propulsion system?
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Answer1: I would assume so, as long as the contraption itself was waterproof. And since lasers are just focused beams of light, they are subject to the laws of refraction, meaning that the laser would hit whatever the shark was looking at - below or above the water. (Note: this assumes the Scott Evil method of attaching lasers to sharks, whereby lasers are positioned above the shark's head, directly in front of the dorsal fin)
Answer2: I'm not sure about lasers, but most sharks are quite good at aiming the
Re:moats filled with sharks with friggin' laser be (Score:5, Informative)
Yes laser works underwater [csumb.edu], Otters have better aim though, they also easily dodge lasers so expect no Otter battles..
We don't need no stinking sharks! (Score:2)
We've got plenty of alligators for our moats here in SC and they don't need pathetic little lasers.
Am I the only one that finds it depressing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Am I the only one that finds it depressing (Score:5, Funny)
No, just normal... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having worked in a few data centers over the course of my life... They are continuing the long-standing tradition of nondescript concrete/cinder block buildings that have hosted data centers for decades.
Nobody, including Google, wants to advertise their data centers- they want them to look like ordinary warehouses or industrial buildings.
It's pretty much required from a security standpoint, and is why Google is very secretive of its data center locations. You might even have a Google data center in the airport industrial park right down the street.
Would you really expect a big steel and glass architectural wonder with "Google" emblazoned all over it? I would expect nothing more or less from a Google data center than a big ugly concrete box in an industrial park. They (big ugly concrete boxes) are easy to guard and air condition, and don't require a receptionist or PR staff.
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It's pretty much required from a security standpoint, and is why Google is very secretive of its data center locations. You might even have a Google data center in the airport industrial park right down the street.
You're not suggesting that somebody who would be a security concern for Google would have a hard time finding one of their data centers, are you?
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Surely the sharks are a bit of a giveaway though? Given Google's attempts at efficiencies, they probably need people to come snooping around so the sharks can eat or at least pra
Ooooohhh.....ahhhhh.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pictures of a big warehouse-like building! Amazing! Why, I've never seen one! Looks like a giant ... uhhhhhh.... box! w00t! Those pics are just sooo 1337!
Re:Ooooohhh.....ahhhhh.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we say we've reached the height of Google-worship when pictures of the exterior of a data center warrant a front page mention on Slashdot?
Now, if there were pictures of the interior (you know, where the interesting stuff is), I could see wanting to feature it, but the outside of the building? This is like saying you have a big scoop about the internal working of the NSA and then showing a picture of their front gate.
Re:Ooooohhh.....ahhhhh.... (Score:4, Funny)
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Now, if there were pictures of the interior (you know, where the interesting stuff is), I could see wanting to feature it
You did read the article, didn't you?
"For a full pictorial history of the inside of Google's data centers, see James Hamilton's blog [mvdirona.com] (scroll down when you get there for the photos), where James has posted some photos supplied by Google's Jeff Dean."
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Actually, I have an image from the inside of Google Headquarters [folk.uio.no]... lots of empty space :)
Where do you sign up to play with toys like that? (Score:3, Interesting)
How long do you suppose you have to build data centers before Google hires you and tells you to go nuts? That's amazing, and I'd love to just walk around in it asking the guy questions who designed it.
I can't imagine how much electrical engineering, physics, and IT years of experience were required to put that thing together.
Anyone get to work in something approaching this level?
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Yep, me. I actually work in the SC location. I was hired after submitting my resume to www.google.com/jobs. Cheers. :)
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haha Busted!
So seriously, can I come play?
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I work in the data center design industry, and if you have a 4-year EE or ME degree and the interest you can get into the design engineering end fairly easily. I have been on the design and build teams of 3 centers now (non-GOOG) and am currently working on additional 2. Great growth industry and yes, there is quite a bit (years) of design work that goes into a well designed DC.
Hey! (Score:2, Funny)
Some of my best friends are sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their friggin' heads, you insensitive clod!
How much foil? (Score:3, Funny)
And how much foil do you have to wear on your head to kiss these friends?
New Design? (Score:2)
The open, lighted area, could also just be a loading dock, a covered storage area, a parking garage, building utilities area (above-ground 'basement') or any number of 'non-sinister' things. Remember, Google is a 'do no evil' company.
Google Maps Link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Google Maps Link (Score:5, Funny)
They don't even have streetview of their own building!
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Of course not! Everyone knows that's a huge privacy issue. :-)
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They don't even have streetview of their own building!
No, but Microsoft does. [live.com] More recent photo, too. Looks unfinished in the Gmaps photo..
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Interesting edit job on the building itself too. Looks ethereal.
slashdotted (Score:5, Funny)
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DCK has remained up through many prior Slashdottings
the tubes (Score:1)
search queries going through all those series of tubes
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It may be just me, but it looks like a bunch of old drive-up bank windows with air tubes.
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look at all the tubes coming out of it
And they are right next to the truck loading docks. Is this where the data is transfered from the trucks to the tubes?
Thank goodness.... (Score:2, Offtopic)
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Parking for H2s (Score:2)
The open air design will allow them to leave the H2s idling all day so the A/C can run and keep the interior at the perfect temp.
Ah - Green datacenter.
does the InterNet increase or decrease buildings? (Score:2)
Now we see the search engines and cloud computers are building massive data centers around the world. In the long run they may reduce or replace corporate data centers.
"Temples of the Internet" (Score:2)
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What did you expect?
Not impressed (Score:2)
As somebody who's work in and around huge datacenter facilities for years, I'm not impressed at all. It looks like any other well organized purpose built large scale datacenter I've ever been to.