Google's Data Center

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Greg More

Google was in the news this week wasn’t it? First, there was the intentional release of photos from inside their data center and stories about their data centers from journalists such as Steven Levy. Then there was the unintentional premature earnings release by RR Donnelley indicating earnings per share of $9.03 instead of the market expectation of $10.65 causing the stock price to fall $68.10 or 9% before tradingwas halted.

Scattered among the many photos of Googledata centers were a few Easter eggs. My  favorite was the “Super Secret Strategic PUE Plan.” I’ve checked with our Power IQ energy management software product manager to learn whether Power IQ is able to calculate a PUE less than 1.0. He assures me that if Google can achieve a PUE less than 1.0 our Power IQ will be able to calculate it.

According to the May 2009 “The Datacenter as a Computer: An Introduction to the Design of Warehouse-Scale Machines” by Googlers Urs Holzle and Luiz Barroso, “The computing platform of interest no longer resembles a pizza box or a refrigerator but a warehouse full of computers … We must treat the data center itself as one massive warehouse-scale computer.”

The “one massive warehouse-scale computer” is composed of what Raritan has articulated as the concept of “smart racks.” A data center, whether a room or an entire building, is all about what is happening at the rack. Obviously, this is where the actual computing is taking place. It is also where the vast majority of the power is being consumed, or should be. It is the web of communications within the data center, within the organization and for communications with the rest of the world. If this kingdom of IT is not properly protected and maintained there can be very serious consequences.

If you would like to learn more about smart racks, read the Raritan smart racks article.