Google Throws Open Doors to Its Top-Secret Data Center

Photographs by Connie Zhou, give a never-before-seen look at the technology, the people and the places that keep Google running

Google has opened a virtual window into the secretive data centres where an intricate maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips and distribute email for millions of people.

Google's Council Bluffs data centre provides over 115,000 square feet of space. They make the best out of every inch, so people can use services like Search and YouTube in the most efficient way possible.

Photographic access to Google's data centres coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them. The article is written by Steven Levy, a journalist who won Google's trust while writing "In The Plex," a book published last year about the company's philosophy and evolution.

The data centers represent Google's nerve centre, although none are located near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of Google's data centre there begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power.

As Google blossomed from its roots in a Silicon Valley garage, company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked with other engineers to develop a system to connect low-cost computer servers in a way that would help them realize their ambition to provide a digital roadmap to all of the world's information.

Initially, Google just wanted enough computing power to index all the websites on the Internet and deliver quick responses to search requests. As Google's tentacles extended into other markets, the company had to keep adding more computers to store videos, photos, email and information about their users' preferences

Each of Google's server racks has four switches, connected by a different colored cable. The colours are kept the same throughout the data centre so they know which one to replace in case of failure.

The insights that Google gathers about the more than 1 billion people that use its services has made the company a frequent target of privacy complaints around the world. The latest missive came Tuesday in Europe, where regulators told Google to revise a 7-month-old change to its privacy policy that enables the company to combine user data collected from its different services.

Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like. The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google's revenue, which totaled nearly $23 billion through the first half of this year.

Thousands of feet of pipe line the inside of the data centres. Google said "We paint them bright colors not only because it's fun, but also to designate which one is which". The bright pink pipe in this photo transfers water from the row of chillers (the green units on the left) to an outside cooling tower.

Even as it allows anyone with a Web browser to peer into its data centres, Google intends to closely guard physical access to its buildings. The company also remains cagey about how many computers are in its data centers, saying only that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google's services.

Google's need for so many computers has turned the company a major electricity user, although management says it's constantly looking for ways to reduce power consumption to protect the environment and lower its expenses.

An overhead view of one of the cooling plants, where sea water from the Gulf of Finland entirely cools the data centre there.

The company's data centres are located in: Berkeley County, S.C.; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Ga.; Mayes County, Okla.; Lenoir, N.C.; The Dalles, Ore.; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium. Other data centers are being built in Quilicura, Chile; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

The unprecedented peek is being provided through a new website unveiled yesterday at http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/. The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centres that Google Inc. already has running in the US, Finland and Belgium. Google is also building data centers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.

Insulated pipes like these have a U-bend so they can expand and contract as the fluid temperature inside the pipe changes.

In case anything should happen to Google's data, they have it all backed up. One of the places they back up information is here in the tape library. Robotic arms (visible at the end of the aisle) assist in loading and unloading tapes when they need to be accessed.

This is a closer view of the backup tapes in the tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so the robotic system can locate the right one.

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 Google's servers.

Inside Google's campus network room, routers and switches allow their data centres to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting Google's sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home Internet connection. The fibre cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling.

Storage tanks like these can hold up to 240,000 gallons (900,000 litres) of water at any given time. This insulated tank holds water that will be sent to the heart of the data centre for cooling.

These ethernet switches connect the facilities network. Thanks to them, Google are able to communicate with and monitor their main controls for the cooling system in the data centre.

These colorful pipes carry water. Three of the data centres, like this one in Finland, run on 100% unprocessed or greywater. The idea behind this is simple: instead of depending on clean, potable water, Google use alternative sources of water and clean it just enough so it can be used for cooling. This water still needs to be processed, but treatment for data centre use is much easier than cleaning it for drinking.

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, Google chose to renovate an old paper mill to take advantage of the building's infrastructure as well as its proximity to the Gulf of Finland's cooling waters.

Blue LEDs on this row of servers tell Google operators that everything is running smoothly. LEDs are energy efficient, long lasting and bright.

As part of Google's commitment to keeping their users' data safe, they destroy all failed drives, on site.

Plastic curtains hang in a network room inside the centre. Cold air is served up through the floor, and the clear plastic barriers help keep the cold air in while keeping hot air out.

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