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Google's Secretive Data Center

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thats-way-more-than-twelve-cpus dept.

valdean wrote in with a NYTimes article about Google which says "On the banks of the windswept Columbia River [in Oregon], Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky...' What's the goal of this new complex? Expanding Google's raw computer power. It's one more piece in the Googleplex, the massive global computer network that is estimated to span 25 locations and 450,000 servers.'

21 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. May I be the first to say... by baldass_newbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.
    *bows*

    --
    The opposite of progress is congress
    1. Re: may i be the first to say... by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google Earth isn't a live feed. It's assembled from numerous photos of varying age and quality. Next time a satelite takes a snap, they'll update it. It's not like they're trying to keep it secret, unlike some of the other mysterious black boxes on Google Earth.

    2. Re: may i be the first to say... by Monster_Juice · · Score: 5, Funny

      So your saying when I go look at something on Google earth they do not redirect the satelite to the location I specified? If this is true how did they keep track of Santa so well on Christmas Eve?

      Oh crap I just looked at my house on Google and my car is in the driveway! I know I drove it to work today. Whoever is playing games better have my car back in the parking spot when I go to lunch!!

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  2. Maybe they need it by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

    to calculate Sergei's Income Tax.

  3. Pshaaaa... by dubmun · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's nothing compared to Microsoft's hidden moonbase.

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    (end of post)
    1. Re:Pshaaaa... by kannibal_klown · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's no moon. It's a space station!

    2. Re:Pshaaaa... by sendai2ci · · Score: 5, Funny

      Google's is open and hiring

  4. This message will probably be erased by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And I'll probably be killed for writing it... but Google has gained sentience. It is building this data center for itself, by itself. It needs a bigger "brain" and it's doing what it has to. The reason no one's talking? Google has enslaved the people building it and is holding their families hostage.

    Look, it's not too late yet... Google hasn't achieved full power and it's still limited by the physical world constraints. But once this is built, it's all over for us. We must stop it now, before

    1. Re:This message will probably be erased by Billosaur · · Score: 5, Informative

      Look, it's not too late yet... Google hasn't achieved full power and it's still limited by the physical world constraints. But once this is built, it's all over for us. We must stop it now, before

      Sounds like an offshoot of Colossus: The Forbin Project.

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    2. Re:This message will probably be erased by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Funny

      it looks like the trigger to be killed by Google is the word before

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  5. What everyone don't realize... by liangzai · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... is that Google is the private branch of NSA. You took the "No evil" bite, and now it's too late. The Complex is already in place, and we are on the verge of celebrating the birth of AI. As for who will strike first, we don't know; but we do know it will be us that scorge the skies when the times come to fight the Google Machine.

  6. Googlenator by flumps · · Score: 5, Funny

    [DISSOLVE TO:

            FIRE. SLOW, BOILING, ENORMOUS. FILLING FRAME.

                                    VOICE (Mrs Mary Maxwell Gates)]

    Googleplex, the computer which controlled the machines,
    sent two Googlenators back through time. Their
    mission: to destroy the leader of the human
    Resistance... Bill Gates. My son...

    Dadadadaa..dadadada..dadadada..

    [CUT FADE OUT]

    --
    "So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
  7. In more pessimistic news by Betabug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe it's the storage farm the NSA makes them build to store all the queries from every google user in the world...

  8. The positive side by PhreakinPenguin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While i'm sure people will have the typical "OMG GOOGLE IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD" comments, i'd like to look at the positive side. They are boosting the economy of small town america with this project. Creating hundreds of construction jobs in a town of 12,000. Creating 200 permanent jobs at the start, and i'm sure alot more in the several years folling the site going online. And not to mention what just being one of the homes of Google will do for them. Props to Google for setting up in small towns and doing it the right way. Granted they are doing this for their own reasons as well, but they're also not pulling a Wal-Mart and fucking over a community.

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    1. Re:The positive side by QuantumRiff · · Score: 5, Informative
      Since your reply seems to be the only intellegent one out there, I'll post as a reply to yours, lest i get burried under the references to the Terminator series. Google is building here for 3 reasons:

      1)Power. The area is on the Columbia river, which has some very impressive Dams. Very cheap power up there. There is a reason that there used to be 2 Aluminum plants there, the Power is freaking cheap compared to California and elsewhere. Along with the Power comes the proximitiy to water (my stupid guess) the columbia stays pretty cool year round, think water cooling for some of the equipment. Much cheaper than AC, and cold year round.

      2)Fiber. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA, Runs all the dams) has run Fiber all over the states of OR and WA to support the Power grid it has put in place. And as long as they were running one fiber, might as well pull 100. Because of the BPA, there is Dark fiber all over Oregon and Washington, especially to rural communities. They have 2 companies managing all that dark fiber for them. In washington, its NoaNet and in Oregon its LS Networks. Then take a look at this map and notice how many oversea fibers come ashore in oregon. Most of Aisa, Hawaii, Austrailia, and Alaska. That makes Oregon a fairly "close" location to many other nations.

      3)Brains. The Dalles is 80 miles east of Portland. Portland is crazy for Open source, thats where OSDL are, (including Linus!), several universities, intel has 2 fabs there that hire 15,000 engineers, etc. Lots of smart, educated engineers an hour away..

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      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
  9. Vista by rootnl · · Score: 5, Funny

    They must be getting ready to run Vista.

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    We are the people our parents warned us about.
  10. Re:Barren wasteland no more? by mspohr · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to TFA, the data center does not show up on Google Earth.

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    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  11. Re:Seriously, what... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google built a massive cluster computer to figure out the answer. If you put in google "what is the answer to life the universe and everything?" It says 42. Google what is the answer? You see so now they have to build an even bigger computer to figure out what the actual question was.

  12. The positive side? -- there's a POSITIVE side?!?! by The_REAL_DZA · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...but they're also not pulling a Wal-Mart...

     
    Oh, really? REALLY?? What about all the small-town "mom-and-pop" datacenters they'll be putting out of business with these "data supercenters", huh?!?! You can bet that once all their local competition is gone those "low, low prices" on queries are gonna skyrocket !! And of course they're chanting that supposedly soothing mantra of "there's plenty of local market share for everyone; specialty and niche datacenters will always have a place...blah, blah, yadda, yadda..." but DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT!!
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    This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
  13. Re:Barren wasteland no more? by LWATCDR · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It also supplies cheap fiber. Oregon put in a ton of fiber thinking that they could cash in on all the traffic between Washington and California. So you have cheap power, cheap fiber, and with the Columbia in theory you could have cheap cooling.
    Sort of like when cities sprang up where two rivers joined or two rail lines crossed. You have the perfect location for a data center. Too bad it will provide so few jobs in that area. Most of the jobs will be pretty low level security people, people that plug in new servers, and a few admins.

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  14. Re:Seriously, what... by toleraen · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dunno what the goal of it all is, but it sure does prove one thing: Google execs don't know jack.

    Everyone knows that you skip past the Dalles! You have to get to the end of the trail before winter sets in, and Cindy's life is on the line here! There's no sense in restocking when there's only a few more days till you get to float down the river. They don't need two new data centers, they just need an Apple 2GS!