The Google data center website provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes virtual tour into the Google internet machine

Americas:

Berkeley County, South Carolina
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Douglas County, Georgia
Quilicura, Chile
Mayes County, Oklahoma
Lenoir, North Carolina
The Dalles, Oregon

Asia:

Hong Kong
Singapore
Taiwan

Europe:

Hamina, Finland
St Ghislain, Belgium
Dublin, Ireland

Interactive Insights

To the average internet user, Google is mostly seen simply as a convenient search engine which has other benefits such as free web mail (Gmail). In fact, it’s surprising just how few people even realize that the hugely popular YouTube service is actually owned by the big “G”.

The Google data center website provides a fascinating, behind-the-scenes virtual tour into the Google internet machine with some brilliant interactive videos, documentary style videos (via YouTube of course), along with photos of the data centers and other facilities showing staff working in them. There is even a street view of some of the Google data centers via Google maps.

In particular, one of the best virtual tour’s on the site is that of the amazing journey a simple email message goes through from the moment a user clicks “send” until the moment it arrives in the recipient’s inbox. This video has got to be the easiest and the most fun explanation of how data is transmitted and received through the internet and I highly recommend it for all ages from 5 years old to 95 years old!

Watch the interactive video here

Security

Also made available for download from the website are text publications in PDF format which provide detailed technical information about some of the more critical aspects such Google’s data and security measures. One such publication is the ”Security Whitepaper” which explains Google’s multi-layered security strategy and how it is implemented through ten key security components in order to protect it’s users stored data on the Google cloud.

Data security is probably a very boring subject to most but it’s comforting to see just how seriously Google take their security measures when storing & transmitting our precious information across the web.

Renewable Energy Campaigns

The Google data center website also provides some useful information on the company’s  commitment toward sustainable energy consumption initiatives where they claim to be already powering more than 30% of its current facilities through solar, wind and other clean energy sources.

Interesting to note their involvement with Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) whereby Google appear to be actively establishing powerful working relationships with certain energy providers and continuously working on ways to develop green energy solutions to put back in to the grid.

The company claims to have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in large scale renewable energy projects. This may also provide some comfort to anyone who has spent money on advertising through their AdWords platform – knowing that their click fees are being put to some good use!

Cooling Secrets Revealed

The Google data center website also provides some insight into some of the cooling methods Google use to keep their massive data centers running at optimum temperatures (or rather, to keep them from overheating). One such method is the use of powerful fans and special materials to enhance the cooling of vapor in cooling towers, then re-sends the cooled water back to the data center again.

Another method they of cooling they use is the use of cold salt water from the ocean in Finland. At their Hamina data center in Finland, the cool salt water is pumped through a network of pipes which run throughout the data center and then pumped back into the sea at a different location. Full credit to Google for their ability to think outside the box because the facility in Hamina is in fact an old, unused paper mill near the coast which they purchased, then modified for the purpose.

Google conducted extensive thermal testing simulations before deciding to go ahead with re-using the cooling system for its new data center and also has systems in place to ensure the water is re-cooled to a temperature that will not adversely affect the surrounding ecosystem after the water is pumped back into the sea.

Recycling Methods

This is a hot topic and with good reason. Since the birth of the very first IBM computer back in the 1950′s, computer ”junk” has now reached epidemic proportions. Google appears to be also taking the lead with regards to minimizing electronic waste whilst, in parallel, finding ways to extend the overall life of the essential components used to make up their networking and storage equipment.

Where possible, outdated processors and their components are relocated to other areas of the data center where they can run services that need less processing power. And where it’s not possible, all the stored data is completely erased before reselling the equipment back into the general market place. Nice!

Any components that are rendered unsalable are broken down into raw materials (copper, steel, aluminium, etc), are then sent off for general recycling.

Google claim to have rebuilt/reused enough outdated servers since 2007 to have avoided purchasing over 300,000 new servers.

Leading The Way

Love or hate the internet superpower that is the almighty Google. And some may perhaps see their data center website as a publicity stunt designed to “enlighten” users and portray an image of a caring, decent, green energy aware search engine, web mail & cloud service provider, we cannot ignore the fact that the big “G” seem to be at the forefront of more than just search results and video hosting and they are not afraid to show it.

Put simply, they continue to grow bigger and better than their less successful counterparts who just seem to be falling further and further behind.

The cooling system for the new facility has been designed in such a way where it will utilize sea water (as opposed to a chiller plant system) which will be pumped from around 7 meters below sea level. Once the naturally chilled sea water enters the data center, it will travel through specially designed channels throughout the infrastructure made out of granite.

During the implementation stage of these granite cooling tunnels, Google system architects and engineers used a miniature submarine to survey the cooling tunnels to ensure there would be no instances of blockage. Although Google are holding their cards fairly close to their chests with regards to the exact functionality of the “sea cooling system” they have revealed that the incoming chilled sea water will be pumped through a series of four straining systems, then into a water-to-water heat exchanger where it will cool a separate water loop that is used to cool the entire data center.

Mr. Joe Kava, Senior Director of the Data Center Infrastructure, provides a short overview of the unique cooling system integration for the Hamina project in this video:

Google conducted extensive thermal testing simulations before deciding to go ahead with re-using the cooling system for its new data center which has been out of action since the paper mill shut down in 2008. Their testing involved tracking the fluctuation in temperatures from different tidal conditions and also seasonal temperature changes of the water and to what depth. As a result, it was concluded that 7.5 meters below the surface of the sea was the most suitable for optimum cooling all year round.

Google also is taking steps to ensure the water is re-cooled to a temperature that will not adversely affect the surrounding ecosystem after the water is pumped back into the sea.

• Site space and layout
• Cabling infrastructure
• Tiered reliability
• Environmental considerations

This document released by ADC Krone describes the key elements of the TIA-942 standard, a valuable tool in designing your data center and maximizing your investment…[read more]

This is obviously welcomed by some of the bigger players in the commercial data center sector because if the Open Commute Project proves to be as successful as Facebook claims it to be (in terms of efficiency & reliability) it has the potential to save billions of dollars in power costs.

Hats off to Facebook for their “open book” approach and if all goes according to plan, the rapidly growing data center industry can breathe a little easier when designing the active infrastructure of their data centers for the future.

Read the full article on the Facebook Open Commute Data Center Project [HERE]