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Take a Peek Inside Google’s Secretive Data Centers With This Virtual Tour

Oct. 17, 2012 3:22pm Liz Klimas

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Servers at a data center in Finland. (Photo: Google)

SAN FRANCISCO (TheBlaze/AP) — Google is giving uses a chance to “see where the Internet lives” by opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where an intricate maze of computers process search requests, show YouTube video clips and distribute email for millions of people.

The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled Wednesday. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centers that Google Inc. already has running in the U.S., Finland and Belgium. Google is also building data centers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Google’s data center in The Dalles, Oregon. (Photo: Google)

Virtual tours of a North Carolina data center also will be available through Google’s “Street View” service, which is usually used to view photos of neighborhoods around the world.

The photographic access to Google’s data centers coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them. The article is written by Steven Levy, a journalist who won Google’s trust while writing “In The Plex,” a book published last year about the company’s philosophy and evolution.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

LEDs in a Google data center. (Photo: Google)

The data centers represent Google’s nerve center, although none are located near the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Data center in Berkeley, South Carolina. (Photo: Google)

As Google blossomed from its roots in a Silicon Valley garage, company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked with other engineers to develop a system to connect low-cost computer servers in a way that would help them realize their ambition to provide a digital roadmap to all of the world’s information.

Initially, Google just wanted enough computing power to index all the websites on the Internet and deliver quick responses to search requests. As Google’s tentacles extended into other markets, the company had to keep adding more computers to store videos, photos, email and information about their users’ preferences.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Pipes bring in cold water and take out hot in order to keep the servers at an acceptable temperature. (Photo: Google)

The insights that Google gathers about the more than 1 billion people that use its services has made the company a frequent target of privacy complaints around the world. The latest missive came Tuesday in Europe, where regulators told Google to revise a 7-month-old change to its privacy policy that enables the company to combine user data collected from its different services.

Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like. The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google’s revenue, which totaled nearly $23 billion through the first half of this year.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Associate Facilities Manager Jeff Hajer burning wire. (Photo: Google)

Even as it allows anyone with a Web browser to peer into its data centers, Google intends to closely guard physical access to its buildings. The company also remains cagey about how many computers are in its data centers, saying only that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google’s services.

Google’s need for so many computers has turned the company a major electricity user, although management says it’s constantly looking for ways to reduce power consumption to protect the environment and lower its expenses.

Google Offers Look Inside Its High Tech Data Centers Around the World

Destruction of failed drives. (Photo: Google)

The company’s data centers are located in: Berkeley County, S.C.; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Ga.; Mayes County, Okla.; Lenoir, N.C.; The Dalles, Ore.; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium. Other data centers are being built in Quilicura, Chile; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

Be sure to check out more photos inside Google’s data centers here.

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Comments (13)

Dingus2
Posted on October 23, 2012 at 7:16pm
I thought the internet was in Al Gore’s basement…….

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CulperGang
Posted on October 18, 2012 at 11:23am
what a waste of taxpayers money. 1/3 of that “stored” info is disinfo for big bro. and as they can more intrusive and won’tr leave people alone the disinfo is going to be 2/3……that will bollocks them up. goog should just wipe all info as soon as it get from point A to B…..my fathers bunyons is of no interest to big bro unless the guys a degenerate perv. which i hear tell most of them are. private parties 13K bottle of champain on sluts paid for by me and you as they FORCIBLY take our $$$$$$.

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INTHEBROTHERHOOD
Posted on October 18, 2012 at 1:54am
who cares what data they store ? just think where we would be without them….stone age….

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random357
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 9:42pm
Sky net is born.

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parnellij
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:58pm
This is not where the “Internet lives,” this is where Google lives. The Internet is simply a large decentralized network where any attached node can communicate directly with another. The Internet was never designed for big central control like you see in the pictures above, and in fact, the Internet would continue to function just fine if Google dropped off the face of the earth. Just like with government, we must be vigilant in protecting our own freedom and privacy. You owe it to yourself to look up the FreedomBox Foundation and also check out a speech given by Eben Moglen entitled Freedom in the Cloud.

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- Jaycen
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 7:31pm
  I don’t know about your ulterior motive in pushing your personal favorite, but I agree Google is NOT “the internet”.
  
  It’s annoying to see that mentality in a Blaze blogger, but what can one do? I’ve come to expect it from Liz.
  
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h20sue
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:47pm
I’ve read that Google’s GMail is constantly stealing information on those who use it. I would like to do away with Google on my computer. Can anyone tell me how I can wipe it off my computer without hurting other search engines? I once had a Gmail address and haven’t used it in over three years. Does it just go away when not used? I’m just learning about this mess, and not very computer savy, so I’d like to know these answers. Anyone who reads this with answers, please reply to this.
Thank you so much. H20sue

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- g00gle-expert
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 7:36pm
  Try http://www.ehow.com/how_5731247_remove-google-computer.html I am not affiliated with that website in any manner. But I have done all 3 steps plus more multiple times myself. But if you do have Google Chrome installed (Number 3 on the list) please make sure you have another web browser (Internet Explorer – Mozilla Firefox among others.) installed before you precede to uninstall Google Chrome. Afterwards you could Click “start” – “search” and then search for terms such as “google” to see if any files are still located on your hard-drive. Hope that helps. :D
  
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parnellij
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:37pm
This is not where the “Internet lives,” this is where Google lives. The Internet is a decentralized network in which all attached nodes can communicate directly with each other. The Internet works just fine without Google. The picture above shows a huge centralized data center designed to mine personal data. There is an alternative, http://freedomboxfoundation.org/learn/ , but we all must take some initiative to protect our own privacy.

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I Aint PC
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:22pm
I tried to get in. They would not hire me in Lenoir.

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TRILO
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:11pm
I wonder if Google’s secret data center is connected to the NSA’s secret data center?

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- Salamander
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 6:06pm
  They probably rent space to NSA to store an image of everthing that hits the Google servers! Anybody, other than me, think that the U.S. Post Office is missing a HUMONGOUS opportunity to put some integrity back in email! Can you imagine if spam were a Federal Offense? Wouldn’t it be nice if ALL unsolicited mail included a ‘poision pill’ to scrub one’s address from ALL unsolicited originators in the Internet mesh!
  
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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 3:45pm
Interesting, very interesting.

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