Google's Secretive Data Center

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.'

Re:The purpose of the extra computing power...

[PhreakinPenguin]

While they will need something more down the road, AdWords is making them money hand over fist right now. Last figure I read was in the billions per year. Not bad for throwing some text on a page.

Re:why on a river?

[madaxe42]

They probably use the water for cooling, and maybe hydro power - even if they're not using the hydro from where they are, power has got to be cheaper there, due to lower distribution costs from wherever the nearest hydro plant is.

The datacenter in Groningen, The Netherlands

[lzandman]

Sometime ago I created a Google Earth placemark for the Google Datacenter in Groningen, The Netherlands [keyhole.com]. I go by it every day.

Re:Well, nice while it lasted

[arivanov]

You are mostly correct.

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

Re:Um...why not be one then?

[muhgcee]

A network engineer for google has to know their shit. GED and a pulse? Try CCNP and a bachelor's. Not to mention their extensive interview process.

What makes you think I have no ambition?

Re:Seriously, what...

[bwhaley]

I applied for a sys admin position in a Google data center in 2004 and was accepted but turned down the job. Their data center admins are contractors without benefits. At the time, the data centers were in Mt. View, Atlanta, and D.C, and the position I was offered was for either of the latter 2. Although working for Google sounds fun and interesting, would you want to work as a contractor in a data center in either of those places? Pay was decent but I'm certainly making more now working at a small company in a MUCH better location.

Bottom line? Despite Google's reputation and the fact that their stock is insane, my quality of life comes first.

Re:Barren wasteland no more?

[LWATCDR]

It also supplies cheap fiber. Oregon put in a ton of fiber thinking that they could cash in on all the traffic between Washington and California. So you have cheap power, cheap fiber, and with the Columbia in theory you could have cheap cooling.
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:Not such a good strategy...

[Phroggy]

Maybe if Google wanted to build a "secret" datacenter they shouldn't have let the New York Times write an article about it....

It doesn't look to me like Google "let" the NYT write this article at all. Noticed who they talked to for this story:

• a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds
  
• executive director of the Port of Klickitat
  
• executive director of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce
  
• a former Google executive who is now director of engineering at ISC
  
• a computer networking expert who was a founder of @Home

What did Google officially contribute to the article?

"Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations.

Re: may i be the first to say...

[init100]

unlike some of the other mysterious black boxes on Google Earth.

Would you care to expand on this, please? I have never seen any black boxes in Google Earth, but then I haven't looked at the entire surface of the Earth. :)

repost of my original from months ago

[sepharious]

"I've said it before and I'll continue to say it, Google has BIG plans that everyone is not piecing together. Long story short, I expect to see Google linux sometime within two years (I'd wager this year). This distro will be intimately linked with the online side of Google for storage and software. This will mean that you can go from your PC at home to any webbrowser on the face of the planet and have all of your information as it would be on your own desktop. ALSO, there's a possiblity of seeing something like Sun has where you can have a desktop open with programs, web pages, and files and then go to another PC and have the same desktop open from either a webbrowser or a future version of Google desktop. What do you think all those mobile computing boxes and dark fiber are for? It's all to make Google local to everyone and very very fast. Wait and see. dont forget the Google PC rumors with Walmart, I'm willing to bet that this will happen or something close to it and what we will see is a computer that boots in less than 30sec (a very stripped down and fast linux distro, perhaps on CF or equivalent) and then jumps onto a highspeed net connection to get on the Google network for software and files." I will add that with stories like this [slashdot.org] and this [wired.com] it becomes apparent that Google may be close to a work-around to all that pesky net neutrality bullshit.