One of the best examples of data centres are the ones preserved by Google
This massive antenna receives signals for our Access Services unit which brings fiber optics to residential homes all over the globe. These antennas are also the primary signal source for hundreds of TV channels that make up Google Fiber's TV service- Our data center in The Dalles, Oregon sits on the banks of the Columbia River. Here our team members enjoy rafting, wind surfing, fishing and hiking
- Steam rises above the cooling towers in The Dalles data center in Oregon. These plumes of water vapor create a quiet mist at dusk
- Wildflowers bloom around cooling towers at our Iowa data center
- This family of deer have moved in next to our Council Bluffs, Iowa center
- This massive antenna receives signals for our Access Services unit which brings fiber optics to residential homes all over the globe. These antennas are also the primary signal source for hundreds of TV channels that make up Google Fiber's TV service
- As part of our commitment to keeping our users' data safe, we destroy all failed drives, on site
- Plastic curtains hang in a network room inside our Council Bluffs data center. Here we serve up cold air through the floor, and the clear plastic barriers help keep the cold air in while keeping hot air out
- Inside our campus network room, routers and switches allow our data centers to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting our sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home Internet connection. The
- Blue LEDs on this row of servers tell us everything is running smoothly. We use LEDs because they are energy efficient, long lasting and bright
- Server floors like these require massive space and efficient power to run the full family of Google products for the world. Here in Hamina, Finland, we chose to renovate an old paper mill to take advantage of the building's infrastructure as well
- Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of our data center there begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power
- Insulated pipes like these have a U-bend (called this due to their shape) so they can expand and contract as the fluid temperature inside the pipe changes
- These colorful pipes are responsible for carrying water in and out of our Oregon data center. The blue pipes supply cold water and the red pipes return the warm water back to be cooled
- These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling our facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside our data centers
- We keep pipes like these ready with highly-pressurized water in case of a fire. This water, in particular, is cleaned and filtered so if we use it, we don't contaminate the facility
- An overhead view of one of our cooling plants, where seawater from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data center there
- These colorful pipes carry water. Three of our data centers, like this one in Finland, run on 100% unprocessed or greywater. The idea behind this is simple: instead of depending on clean, potable water, we use alternative sources of water and clean
- Storage tanks like these can hold up to 240,000 gallons (900,000 liters) of water at any given time. This insulated tank holds water that we'll send to the heart of the data center for cooling
- These ethernet switches connect our facilities network. Thanks to them, we are able to communicate with and monitor our main controls for the cooling system in our data center
- A rare look behind the server aisle. Here hundreds of fans funnel hot air from the server racks into a cooling unit to be recirculated. The green lights are the server status LEDs reflecting from the front of our servers
- In case anything should happen to our data, we have it all backed up. One of the places we back up information is here in our tape library. Robotic arms (visible at the end of the aisle) assist us in loading and unloading tapes when we need to
- This is a closer view of the backup tapes in our tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so our robotic system can locate the right one
This massive antenna receives signals for our Access Services unit which brings fiber optics to residential homes all over the globe. These antennas are also the primary signal source for hundreds of TV channels that make up Google Fiber's TV service
One of the best examples of data centres are the ones preserved by Google
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