Google Releases Video Tour of Data Center

Earlier this month Google sponsored a conference on data center efficiency where they showed by example how to achieve the most processing power while consuming the least amount of electricity. This is quite an about-face for Google as previously they have been notoriously secretive about their data centers and server infrastructure.

Since its inception Google has chosen to forego purchasing servers from Dell, IBM, and HP like other data centers usually do and instead has employed the use of custom built servers. All of the servers at Google data centers have been designed internally to their custom specifications and assembled by Google employees.

Google's newfound willingness to share their technology secrets with the IT community can be attributed to the economic downturn we are currently in:  

"Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency and now is sharing more of its experience with the world. With the recession pressuring operations budgets, environmental concerns waxing, and energy prices and constraints increasing, the time is ripe for Google to do more efficiency evangelism," said Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice president of operations.

Google has released videos from the conference including the one below that shows a tour of one of their data centers. The data center shown in the video has slots for over 45,000 servers in 45 containers at capacity and is just part of the computing power that comprises Google.



Google has done extensive research and gone through many a revision in application of technology over the years to increase efficiency at their data centers. After all, increased efficiency lowers operating costs and contributes to higher net profits.