Virtual Tour of Google Data Centre
Ever wonder about how and where Google stores its massive amount of data? If yes, then you are at right place! Because you are going to virtually visit that place called as Google data centre (a place where Google actually stores data of its users) with us.
The places which we refer as Google centres, act as a backbone for Google, even though none are located near the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. They actually contain hundreds of thousands of servers, occupied with colourful cables and even bicycles so engineers at there can get around quickly.
They don’t allow each employee to get over there. Only a small set of employees have right of entry to the server floor itself and have stepped inside Google’s data centers.
And of course, the reason behind this cautious step is “security”. As Google claimed their first priority is the privacy and protection of users’ data, and for this purpose they go to great lengths to protect it, keeping their sites under close guard.
Google’s plan is to strictly guard physical access to its buildings. As the Tech giant also remains cagey about telling the exact numbers of computers in its data centres, by putting only a statement that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google’s services. But latest data on Google’s energy use hinted that the Tech giant is running approximately 900,000 servers.
Inside the house of Data centres
There are different color codes assigned to Google servers (as in the logo of Google) depending on their location. On the other hand, there is a huge system of piping to maintain the appropriate temperature of the data centre. While piping in the building is of two types depend on what it carries – blue tubes carry the cool water whereas in red tubes warm water supplies across the building.
There are tons of server racks across the building and each server rack has four switches, connected by a different coloured cable. Colors theory is kept the same throughout data centres to facilitate the staff so they know which one to replace in case of any failure or damage.
There are about 16 Google data centres across the world but some of them are under construction. These 8 are the famous ones.
- Berkeley County, South Carolina.
- Council Bluffs, Iowa.
- Atlanta, Georgia.
- Mayes County, Oklahoma.
- Lenoir, North Carolina.
- The Dalles, Oregon.
- Hong Kong.
The company is always on the mission of keep adding more and more computers and servers machines to store videos, photos, email and information about their users’ preferences with over growing rate.
