Google dolls up its data centers with a mural project

Google's data centers are massive buildings nestled in cities around the world, and most of them are fairly drab from the outside. After all, it's what's inside that counts. However, Google is in the process of sprucing up these sad exteriors with the Data Center Mural Project. So far, data centers in Mayes County, Oklahoma, and Saint-Ghislain, Belgium, have received murals from artists Jenny Odell and Oli-B, respectively. Each of the paintings attempt to visualize the actual function of the data centers -- mainly, hosting, distributing and securing online information.

"Whether it's sharing photos, searching the web, or translating languages, billions of requests are sent to 'the cloud' every day," VP of Google Data Centers Joe Kava writes. "But few people know all this information flows through physical locations, called data centers. Because these buildings typically aren't much to look at, people usually don't, and rarely learn about the incredible structures and people who make so much of modern life possible."

Next up, data centers in Dublin, Ireland, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, will receive facelifts. Kava says that Google eventually plans to roll out this project to even more data centers around the world.