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DATA CENTRES ARE normally shrouded in secrecy because they are the brains behind tech companies.
But not Google’s. The search giant has shared with the world photos that lift the veil off its unfathomably large and very pretty data centers around the world, in places like Iowa, Oregon, South Carolina, Finland and Belgium.
Google says when you’re on its website, you’re accessing one of the most powerful server networks in the known universe. Looking at these images, it’s hard to disagree.
Inside the Iowa data center there is over 115,000 square feet of space. These servers allow services like YouTube and Google search to work efficiently.
It’s really, really BIG.
In the campus network room, routers and switches allow data centers to talk to each other.
The network connecting these sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home internet connection.
Here’s Google’s data centre in Oregon.
The blue LED lights on this row of servers indicate everything is running smoothly.
Google has purchased 1000 megawatts of renewable energy to power these data centers.
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This is where all data is backed up. A robotic arm load and unload tapes when employees need to access them.
Each tape has a barcode so the robotic arm can easily locate them.
This is rare look behind the server aisle at the centre in the US state of Georgia. Hundreds of fans can be seen taking hot air up and away from the racks, cooling it, and recycling the air back through.
This beautiful view was taken outside Google’s data centre in Finland, which sits on the shores of a frozen gulf.
And here’s the Finnish centre’s conference room. This is next to (of course) a sauna, where employees can relax whenever they like. NICE.
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