After years of secrecy (maybe because they thought no one was interested), Google held its "Data Center Efficiency Summit" yesterday, where the company showed off one of its DCs and custom web servers -- all in a bid to evangelize for energy efficiency. The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves -- each containing its own 12-volt UPS. This design is said to boast a staggering 99.9 percent energy efficiency, as opposed to a standard centralized UPS setup which at best would only score 95 percent. According to CNET, these are efficiency levels that the EPA doesn't envision as practical until at least 2011. But that ain't all -- hit that read link for the whole sordid affair, but not before you check out the video of a server itself after the break.
"The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves -- each containing its own 12-volt UPS."
Just exactly what does this mean, if anything. 100 internet points to engadget posting utter shite that could be mistaken as pseudo tech. Fuck off engadget
A lot of what google is doing makes sense. The Server itself doesn't need fast hard drives. It has a ton of ram. My theory is that they had the memory configured in some sort of SSD. When you remove the hard drive from the performance equation you don't need a lot of hardware. The 12V battery is also interesting. It takes a single point of failure from a giant UPS out of the equation. The fact they are using shipping containers, also tells me they are prepared for worst case situations. Its pretty easy to load up shipping containers and deploy servers where ever and when every they want. I have an uncle who works for the military, and he said in the future cyber warfare will be the biggest threat. The goal of our enemies won't be taking out people, but taking out data centers.
Just think if someone was able to take out Myspace. Millions of people would go through serious withdraw. It would make Coke addicts look like functional beings.
So fake! Shot using a crummy cell-phone camera whose owner forgot that these cams don't do macro shots.
The hard drives seemed to be attached using duct-tape. The wiring is a mess and CPUs (AMD) right next to each other is a sure fire way to system overheat.
Google with it's bank of Ph.Ds couldn't come up with a custom made chassis that carried the google logo?
You so-called I.T. professionals are idiots. If you bothered to read any of the associated news articles you'd know this is legit, and the technology is mildly surprising but not unknown. To the fellow talking about a custom-made chassis with the Google logo... why on earth would they spend that sort of money? And how does having a PhD contribute to chassis design? Who are the fools now?
"each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity" how long would that last though? all you need is enough for the servers to shut down properly, & they cant be losing power so often that the efficiency of a UPS system is of any concern.
why are the battery & power supply on opposite sides of the server? http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20090401/GoogleServerLarge.jpg?tag=mncol;txt the image shows the power cable running from the 'rear' all the way through the server to the power supply, then from there all the way back through to the battery. make sense to put the battery & power supply next to each other? (the later b&w pic seems to show that the 'rear' is actually the 'front')
its supposedly a custom motherboard so whats with the mouse & kboard connectors, the 2usb, only 1 ethernet (& if that is all on the rear, how is it ever accessed?)
the battery & hd's seem to be tied down with velcro but how is the whole server tray mounted in the rack, dosnt seem to be any mountings on it
Most UPS's come with only one battery. Most of the batteries in them are the same size as the one in the video. The APC brand of UPS I have, has one battery in it and it's the same size as the video.
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posted April 2nd 2009 2:08PM
OH geez, I read about Google using shipping containers about 3 years ago. This is way old news
"The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves -- each containing its own 12-volt UPS."
Just exactly what does this mean, if anything. 100 internet points to engadget posting utter shite that could be mistaken as pseudo tech. Fuck off engadget
A lot of what google is doing makes sense. The Server itself doesn't need fast hard drives. It has a ton of ram. My theory is that they had the memory configured in some sort of SSD. When you remove the hard drive from the performance equation you don't need a lot of hardware. The 12V battery is also interesting. It takes a single point of failure from a giant UPS out of the equation. The fact they are using shipping containers, also tells me they are prepared for worst case situations. Its pretty easy to load up shipping containers and deploy servers where ever and when every they want. I have an uncle who works for the military, and he said in the future cyber warfare will be the biggest threat. The goal of our enemies won't be taking out people, but taking out data centers.
Just think if someone was able to take out Myspace. Millions of people would go through serious withdraw. It would make Coke addicts look like functional beings.
I wonder if yahoo is also setup in this fashion.
So fake!
Shot using a crummy cell-phone camera whose owner forgot that these cams don't do macro shots.
The hard drives seemed to be attached using duct-tape. The wiring is a mess and CPUs (AMD) right next to each other is a sure fire way to system overheat.
Google with it's bank of Ph.Ds couldn't come up with a custom made chassis that carried the google logo?
Rajib: This is real. FYI the harddrives are held on by velco straps not duct tape.
You so-called I.T. professionals are idiots. If you bothered to read any of the associated news articles you'd know this is legit, and the technology is mildly surprising but not unknown. To the fellow talking about a custom-made chassis with the Google logo... why on earth would they spend that sort of money? And how does having a PhD contribute to chassis design? Who are the fools now?
"each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity"
how long would that last though? all you need is enough for the servers to shut down properly, & they cant be losing power so often that the efficiency of a UPS system is of any concern.
why are the battery & power supply on opposite sides of the server?
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20090401/GoogleServerLarge.jpg?tag=mncol;txt
the image shows the power cable running from the 'rear' all the way through the server to the power supply, then from there all the way back through to the battery. make sense to put the battery & power supply next to each other?
(the later b&w pic seems to show that the 'rear' is actually the 'front')
its supposedly a custom motherboard
so whats with the mouse & kboard connectors, the 2usb, only 1 ethernet
(& if that is all on the rear, how is it ever accessed?)
the battery & hd's seem to be tied down with velcro
but how is the whole server tray mounted in the rack, dosnt seem to be any mountings on it
Most UPS's come with only one battery. Most of the batteries in them are the same size as the one in the video. The APC brand of UPS I have, has one battery in it and it's the same size as the video.