Google Data Centers
 

If you like tech installations, today Google introduced a photo tour of several of its data centers:

Google Data centers

The efforts to cool the electronics are enormous. Enjoy.

Are we sure these people are not disturbing the universe? Seems to me they are keeping more than their share of electrons.

I like the Storm Trooper protecting the rack servers in the Street View tour

Standard raised floor space, nothing very special about it really.

Did you see the system in Finland to bring seawater in for cooling? The cooling towers in NC. Not just using 220 AC HVAC systems here. Colorful piping too.

We've been doing that here in the states for a while now, in Arizona for instance they pump in deep ground water for cooling though a water polishing matrix. I can't remember who's datacenter this is, but someone has one that the side opens on for outside air cooling, now that is unique.

Ah, I found it Facebook in North Carolina.

Water Efficiency at Facebook’s Prineville Data Center – Open Compute Project

Another earth-hugging FB data center in Sweden: Facebook Goes Global With Data Center in Sweden

The tech is sweet and futuristic and all that, but....

1). It shows how much electricity is still being turned into heat-loss in today's inefficient computer systems.

2). Both companies have gobs of money to spend on these projects.
-Where does this money come from?
-How will they produce a future return on this infrastructure? Replace Comcast or Ebay? Banking?

3). There's a whole lot of customer data being processed....cough...

It's so terribly cheap from a capital standpoint though; the power and hardware that is. The big cost is in the opex department, human resources.

thats what I thought. Non-galvanized overhead was different though... its usually gold or telco gray in my experience.

a friend of mine works at the one in ATL. it is amazing..

I've worked in some pretty impressive data centers and they all look incredible when they're new and shiny. Pretty cool stuff!