Being the world’s leading search engine, Google has spent billions building data centers around the world, 13 to be exact – 7 in the Americas, 3 in Asia and 3 in Europe, running constantly year round. Continue reading to see ten of the coolest images taken inside these facilities.
10. Georgia, USA
These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling our facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside our data centers.
9. Iowa, USA
Our Council Bluffs data center provides over 115,000 square feet of space. We make the best out of every inch, so you can use services like Search and YouTube in the most efficient way possible.
8. Georgia, USA
Blue LEDs on this row of servers tell us everything is running smoothly. We use LEDs because they are energy efficient, long lasting and bright.
7. Iowa, USA
Inside our campus network room, routers and switches allow our data centers to talk to each other. The fiber optic networks connecting our sites can run at speeds that are more than 200,000 times faster than a typical home Internet connection. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling.
6. Oklahoma, USA
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 our servers.
5. Iowa, USA
Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of our data center there begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power.
4. Georgia, USA
Thousands of feet of pipe line the inside of our data centers. 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 a outside cooling tower.
3. Mayes County, Oklahoma
Each of our server racks has four switches, connected by a different colored cable. We keep these colors the same throughout our data center so we know which one to replace in case of failure.
2. The Dalles, Oregon
In an unoccupied area, motion-sensors automatically switch off the main lighting to save power. The result is the dazzling glow of the world’s data filtered through multicolored LEDs. It’s like holiday lights year-round.
1. Hamina, Finland
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, we 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.
