Google's Secretive Data Center
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jun 14, 2006 09:22 AM
from the thats-way-more-than-twelve-cpus dept.
from the thats-way-more-than-twelve-cpus dept.
valdean wrote in with a NYTimes article about Google which says "On the banks of the windswept Columbia River [in Oregon], Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky...' What's the goal of this new complex? Expanding Google's raw computer power. It's one more piece in the Googleplex, the massive global computer network that is estimated to span 25 locations and 450,000 servers.'
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Google's Secretive Data Center
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May I be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://investors.com/quotes/default.asp?ac=&t=aapl | Last Journal: Thursday April 26 2007, @08:17PM)
*bows*
Re: may i be the first to say... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: may i be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh crap I just looked at my house on Google and my car is in the driveway! I know I drove it to work today. Whoever is playing games better have my car back in the parking spot when I go to lunch!!
Re: may i be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
Rich
Seriously, what... (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.vulturo.com/)
Is it world domination? Or is it something even more evil? Will Google dethrone Microsoft?? Will Batman & Robin Save The Day... To find out, watch the next expisode
Re:Seriously, what... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Seriously, what... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://introspected.com/)
Bottom line? Despite Google's reputation and the fact that their stock is insane, my quality of life comes first.
Re:Seriously, what... (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone knows that you skip past the Dalles! You have to get to the end of the trail before winter sets in, and Cindy's life is on the line here! There's no sense in restocking when there's only a few more days till you get to float down the river. They don't need two new data centers, they just need an Apple 2GS!
Maybe they need it (Score:5, Funny)
(http://evilempire.ath.cx/)
Pshaaaa... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.dubmun.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday June 14 2006, @01:19PM)
Re:Pshaaaa... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pshaaaa... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pshaaaa... (Score:4, Funny)
This message will probably be erased (Score:5, Funny)
Look, it's not too late yet... Google hasn't achieved full power and it's still limited by the physical world constraints. But once this is built, it's all over for us. We must stop it now, before
Re:This message will probably be erased (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @10:09AM)
Look, it's not too late yet... Google hasn't achieved full power and it's still limited by the physical world constraints. But once this is built, it's all over for us. We must stop it now, before
Sounds like an offshoot of Colossus: The Forbin Project [imdb.com].
Re:This message will probably be erased (Score:5, Funny)
(http://thepreacher.cac2.net/)
[Me thinking] Oh man... Google killed that guy for just revealing it's intentions, which is evil. But, it also hit the submit button for him, thereby causing his death to not be in vain, which was nice. Of course, the poster did unnecessarily use "quotation marks" around the word "brain", which is evil, and deserves death. But he also used the contraction "it's" correctly and didn't misspell sentience, which is good... I guess I don't know what to think... I just hope Google doesn't notice my extravagant and unnecessary use of quotation marks and ellipsis and kill me... I suppose I'd better fix it before
Re:This message will probably be erased (Score:5, Funny)
(http://booktextmark.mozdev.org/)
What everyone don't realize... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.xingfu.se/blogge/)
Re:What everyone don't realize... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/spitzak)
Barren wasteland no more? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @10:09AM)
And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border -- at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking -- is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead.
Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.
When I read stuff like this, I am reminded of Isaac Asmiov's Multivac stories, where the massive computer was always out in some deserted wasteland, far away from the bulk of humanity. It seems strange that the battle for Internet supremacy is taking place in the Northwestern United States. Now the question is: will the Yahoo and Microsoft data centers show up on Google Earth?
Re:Barren wasteland no more? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.gemstate.net/friends | Last Journal: Tuesday September 11, @10:32AM)
Sort of like when cities sprang up where two rivers joined or two rail lines crossed. You have the perfect location for a data center. Too bad it will provide so few jobs in that area. Most of the jobs will be pretty low level security people, people that plug in new servers, and a few admins.
Re:Barren wasteland no more? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Barren wasteland no more? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/)
No surprise - virtually nothing in that area shows up on Google Earth - it's a blur of low res images across the entire region of the state. Not to mention the datacenter may not be visible because the imagery is too old. The datacenter was only built in the last year or so - and much of Googles lowres imagery is much older. The site can be plainly seen in the vicinity of 45.630N 121.203W.
Server Count (Score:5, Funny)
(http://twoturtlelovers.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday May 25, @03:01PM)
Huh
Googlenator (Score:5, Funny)
(http://mcorby.livejournal.com/)
FIRE. SLOW, BOILING, ENORMOUS. FILLING FRAME.
VOICE (Mrs Mary Maxwell Gates)]
Googleplex, the computer which controlled the machines,
sent two Googlenators back through time. Their
mission: to destroy the leader of the human
Resistance... Bill Gates. My son...
Dadadadaa..dadadada..dadadada..
[CUT FADE OUT]
In more pessimistic news (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://betabug.ch/blogs/ch-athens)
Well, nice while it lasted (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://chipped.net/)
All of them soon to be unusable as soon as the new no-net-neutrality laws are in place next year...
Re:Well, nice while it lasted (Score:4, Funny)
And, does it work?
Re:Well, nice while it lasted (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.sigsegv.cx/)
There is always the alternative of google to stop moaning, get their head out of their arse and put their money where their mouth is by creating the next Google product: Google Peering
The only reason for no-net-neutrality being a threat in the US is the fact that there is no US public peering left. The tier 1 cartel peers between themselves and does not allow anyone in. As a result an average small ISP as well as all content providers in the US has 2 uplinks to two providers and that is it. An average small ISP and all content providers in the EU has 2 uplinks and 30+ peering agreements across the Linx, Belgix, DGIX, etc. All of these are less congested than an average US private peering.
As a result, while the tier 1s would like to pressure the content providers the same way, they lack the leverage as they do not have full control over the net
So all Google (and the other winnie moaners) need to do is reestablish public peering in the US and run it properly (subcontract it to Linx to do it if they do not have the brains). Alternatively the Tier 1 cartel will take them by the balls and their wallets will follow
The purpose of the extra computing power... (Score:5, Funny)
I'll bite - it's probably a massive array of computing power dedicated to finding out if Google really has a second marketable product beyond AdWords.
The positive side (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.idontyneednostinkinghomepage.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday July 11 2004, @01:30AM)
Re:The positive side (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://fnordius.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday December 20 2002, @06:48AM)
Little things like that keep a community alive, my friend.
The positive side? -- there's a POSITIVE side?!?! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, really? REALLY?? What about all the small-town "mom-and-pop" datacenters they'll be putting out of business with these "data supercenters", huh?!?! You can bet that once all their local competition is gone those "low, low prices" on queries are gonna skyrocket !! And of course they're chanting that supposedly soothing mantra of "there's plenty of local market share for everyone; specialty and niche datacenters will always have a place...blah, blah, yadda, yadda..." but DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!!
Re:The positive side (Score:5, Informative)
1)Power. The area is on the Columbia river, which has some very impressive Dams. Very cheap power up there. There is a reason that there used to be 2 Aluminum plants there, the Power is freaking cheap compared to California and elsewhere. Along with the Power comes the proximitiy to water (my stupid guess) the columbia stays pretty cool year round, think water cooling for some of the equipment. Much cheaper than AC, and cold year round.
2)Fiber. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA, Runs all the dams) has run Fiber all over the states of OR and WA to support the Power grid it has put in place. And as long as they were running one fiber, might as well pull 100. Because of the BPA, there is Dark fiber all over Oregon and Washington, especially to rural communities. They have 2 companies managing all that dark fiber for them. In washington, its NoaNet [noanet.net] and in Oregon its LS Networks [lsnetworks.net]. Then take a look at this map [state.or.us] and notice how many oversea fibers come ashore in oregon. Most of Aisa, Hawaii, Austrailia, and Alaska. That makes Oregon a fairly "close" location to many other nations.
3)Brains. The Dalles is 80 miles east of Portland. Portland is crazy for Open source, thats where OSDL are, (including Linus!), several universities, intel has 2 fabs there that hire 15,000 engineers, etc. Lots of smart, educated engineers an hour away..
Pimp my Rig (Score:3, Funny)
Oblig James Bond Ref (Score:3, Funny)
Just think, all that hardware and $ just to store millions of "Me too!" replies off of the web.
Vista (Score:5, Funny)
Re:why on a river? (Score:4, Interesting)
Aliens are behind it! (Score:3, Funny)
Is there a link... (Score:5, Informative)
(Last Journal: Monday May 08 2006, @10:06AM)
Re:Not such a good strategy... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://phroggy.com/)
It doesn't look to me like Google "let" the NYT write this article at all. Noticed who they talked to for this story:
What did Google officially contribute to the article?
I can't believe it took this long to come out (Score:3, Informative)
Anybody local to The Dalles has known about this for quite a while now. Google bought the entire land area of the old port and started moving employees up from California. I've known about this project for many months but was told to stay quiet about it. This is the first I've heard of the purpose of the new facility, though.
It's amazing that such a huge development went