Google’s Rapid Growth in Datacenters and Green IT

Google continues to remain one of the most interesting and not surprisingly, secretive technology companies in the world. Their rapid expansion, together with their goal to maintain as small a carbon footprint as possible (“Green IT,” as Gartner calls it), is as fascinating as it is challenging.

Back in March 2001, Google had about 8,000 servers at four server farms. In January 2005, Google told the CBS television show 60 Minutes they had around 100,000 servers. Estimates for 2006 indicate they had 450,000 servers located in 25 global datacenters. Last year, it was estimated that they had around 500,000 servers spread over 60 datacenters. There are five new U.S. datacenters under construction and with around 8,000 servers each, they could have around 550,000 servers in 2008. They also buy 10,000 servers a month. When one fails, instead of repairing it, they discard it and plug in another one.

According to Wikipedia, “The size of Google's search system is presently unknown; the best estimates place the total number of the company's servers at 450,000, spread over twenty five locations throughout the world, including major operations centers in Dublin (European Operations Headquarters) and Atlanta, Georgia. Google is also in the process of constructing a major operations center in The Dalles, Oregon, on the banks of the Columbia River.”

In June of 2006, the New York Times reported that the Oregon site is known locally as Project 02 and it was selected due to the reliable availability of electricity from the nearby Dalles dam and the Celilo Converter Station, as well as abundant fiber optic cable left over from the excessive rollout during the dot com boom.  The building is expected to be the size of two football fields, and has not only created hundreds of construction jobs, but the surrounding real estate values have increased by 40%.  The cooling towers will be four stories high.  The server farm will create between 60 and 200 jobs in the town of 12,000 people. 

Google’s datacenter in Dalles, Oregon, is about a mile away from the Dalles Dam. In the old days, as someone recently pointed out, aluminum smelting companies tried to locate their operations near hydro electric dams. Now we’re seeing the same happening with Google’s datacenters. Google’s corporate philosophy also includes a strong environmental bent, and their charitable arm supports such initiatives. Not surprisingly, they have constructed a datacenter powered by a wind farm in the Netherlands, with another one to be built in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The $600 million project will eventually employ 200 people and should be fully operational by 2009. While Google won’t talk about it very much, so they don't give away the actual size of their operations, they have a goal to be carbon neutral in 2008.

Article Author: Triniman

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