A Video Tour of Google's "Container" Data Center

[tedster]

If you've ever wondered exactly what a Google datacenter looks like, now you can see for yourself. This 6.5 minute video takes the viewer on a tour of the physical plant for one of the data centers that is built in a modular fashion, using the kind of containers that are employed in the shipping industry.

There's a LOT of attention on the cooling processes and power supply. All in all, I was more impressed than I expected. And I was left understanding even more why their "competition" is having so much trouble actually competing.

[youtube.com...]

[maximillianos]

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

[engine]

I always thought it was just two guys in a garage!

[WebWalla]

I like the technician on his "Google-provided personal transportation device" or, erm... scooter!

[LifeinAsia]

Cool! If that's not a modern day representation of a Borg hive, I don't know what else is. :)

I always thought it was just two guys in a garage!

They made a bigger garage just so they could have an excuse to use the "Google-provided personal transportation devices."

[swa66]

Wondering about the reason for the containers: centralized creation of everything important? and ship it world-wide ready to hook up locally to power and cooling?

[physics]

swa66 - yeah I think the idea is that if everything is modular and standardized then production, installation and maintenance costs can be reduced. It must be nice to know EXACTLY how much more energy, space, etc. you'd need to add a couple thousand more servers.

[venetsian]

I'm just wondering how much money are those guys saving with water cooling instead of refrigeration units. Should be in the millions I guess..
Venetsian.

[signor_john]

Wondering about the reason for the containers: centralized creation of everything important? and ship it world-wide ready to hook up locally to power and cooling?

Saves a lot of engineering expense, I'd imagine. Everything (including airflow, which was mentioned in the video) is designed into a standardized unit, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel each time Google builds a new data center or adds a "hangar."