Engineering On The Edge

Google has become a byword for knowledge. Can’t remember who sang that song you like? Who was the 23^rd U.S. president? Need help with a math problem? Just Google it, is usually the answer to the question.

The backbone of Google is its 12 main data centers, located around the world. Security is tight at the centers, with everything from guards to retina scanners to ensure the information entrusted to Google remains secure. For years, Google refused to allow outsiders into the centers, or even really talk about them, but a new sort of technical glasnost has opened the doors, at least a crack.

Colorful array of cooling pipes at a Google data center. Courtesy of Google.

Each center has tens of thousands of servers operating 24/7 to ensure no one ever goes a minute without being able to find a new cat video to watch. If a server goes down, technicians are on the scene almost immediately to make repairs and bring it back up. Along with the main centers, Google also has a host of smaller centers, about the size of a shipping container, scattered throughout the world.

All of that is cool and is a modern marvel of engineering, but isn’t anything you wouldn’t expect coming from the tech giant. What I find nearly as interesting is the measure of visual appeal found in the centers. Cooling pipes are painted in Google colors, not only for the artistic value provided, but also to make identifying which pipe does what, that much easier. For a nerd (i.e. me), pictures of banks of softly glowing servers also provide a kind of technical Zen calm.

Below you’ll find a couple of different videos that provide a look inside the data centers.

Source: Google (Do I really need to link it?)