Slashdot Mirror
YouTube's Bandwidth Bill May be Zero
MrShaggy writes "Credit Suisse made headlines this summer when it estimated that YouTube was costing Google a half a billion dollars in 2009 as it streamed 75 billion videos. But a new report from Arbor Networks suggests that even though Google is approaching 10 percent of the net's traffic, it's got so much fiber optic cable it is simply trading traffic, with no payment involved, with the net's largest ISPs. 'I think Google's transit costs are close to zero,' said Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist for Arbor Networks and a longtime internet researcher. Arbor Networks, which sells network monitoring equipment used by about 70 percent of the net's ISPs, likely knows more about the net's ebbs and flows than anyone outside of the National Security Agency."
The Wired article is from last fall. Arbor's blog post this week by Labovitz has better information. The most interesting data is a chart showing how 60 percent of Google's traffic takes advantage of direct peering, up from 40 percent a year earlier. Given the volume of traffic, we're talking about, there's some meaningful economics in that change.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
They probably did purchase stuff which is already on the market in bulk. They just asked for it to be labelled Google, so people would be less likely to steal it. Although it's rare to double-sided double height sticks these days -- they must have an awful lot of RAM in each server. Perhaps the modules are actually specially made for Google. I bet the chips themselves are bog standard apart from the label though.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
If you're willing to buy a LOT of stuff, parts manufacturers are willing ot customize. (The threshold for "lots" varies).
Intel will sell you a custom spec'd chip if you wanted - only restrictions are it has to be based on a current production model. So if you want an i7 without 64-bit and VT, buy enough chips and Intel will provide it. Hell, if you're Google, they'll probably laser etch Google on it, too.
Power supplies - ditto. Google uses a special arrangement too, so they're probably custom-made. Which is trivial for a power supply company (as they already have lines set up to do custom builds, since 99% of their business is custom power supplies for all sorts of devices).
RAM - buy enough, and the manufacturer can do anything. Laptops often come with "custom" RAM from the OEM (usually just a label slapped on the stick). Given Google's order size, I'm sure the assembler can put GOogle on them. Heck, Apple got custom-manufactured RAM too (Mac Pro FB-DIMMs are custom made to have larger heatsinks).
And yes, Google can order in bulk, but since few can supply the order directly, Google just buys direct - cut out some middlemen, and get customization ability.
Heck, Google might get a custom motherboard too - sure it's based on an existing design, but configured to Google's specs.
Once again, the Slashdot title has got it wrong. TFA doesn't say that Google's overall cost for bandwidth is zero, simply that their transit costs are near zero, which specifically refers money paid to a network provider to carry your traffic.
They didn't lay the fiber--they bought it. Before YouTube came into existence.
And they bought them with pennies on the dollar as well.