Legal Research

Wanna See a Work of Art?

Here it is.

That, my friends, is a typical Google server. That’s what handles your searches for paris hilton. Home made. A model of efficiency. About 1,110 of ‘em are packed into shipping containers. Each Google data center — and there are at least 20 of ‘em worldwide, but nobody knows for sure how many they really have, ’cause they’re not saying — is made up of multiple shipping containers.

If you’re still with me, here are the highlights:

• Note that they use velcro, rather than screws, to attach components. This allows for speedy replacement of parts.

• Each server has its own 12-volt battery backup. Centralized battery backups are expensive and inefficient.

• Google chooses to add $1-$2 to the cost of its motherboards by making them 12-volt only because the power supply will run more efficiently, saving them $$$ in the long run.

Efficiency is gospel at Google. Here’s Urs Hoelzle, Google’s Vice President of operations:

“Ten years ago … it was clear the only way to make (search) work as free product was to run on relatively cheap hardware. You can’t run it on a mainframe. The margins just don’t work out.”

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on April 02, 2009 (boomark / email).