I
t goes without saying that some of the world’s biggest
companies will need similarly large computing resources, particularly if they are tech companies involved in
hosting photos, videos or other services. But have you
ever realised just quite how large these resources are?
Here’s a closer look at what three of the world’s top tech
companies are packing…
In terms of choosing locations for its datacentres, Google is
noted for paying attention to the following considerations:
- The availability of large volumes of cheap electricity to
power the data centres.
Google
- The presence of a large supply of water to support
the chillers and water towers used to cool Google’s data
centres. A number of recent Google data centre sites have
been next to rivers or lakes.
According to its website, Google owns and operates 13
data centres around the world (7 in the Americas, 2 in Asia,
4 in Europe) to keep its products running 24 hours a day, 7
days a week.
- Large parcels of land, which allow for large buffer
zones between the data centre and nearby roads. This
makes the facilities easier to secure, and is consistent with
Google’s focus on data centre secrecy.
Although the company generally does not reveal the size
and extent of its operations, journalists have managed to
learn details of several sites from site plans filed with local
planning boards. As an example, in the Dalles, Oregon
data centre, Google’s site plan includes three 6 380 square
metre data centre buildings, a 1 858 square metre administration building, a 1 486 square metre “transient employee
dormitory” and an 1 672 square metre facility for cooling
towers.
- Distance to other Google data centres. Google needs
lightning-fast response time for its searches, and prizes fast
connections between its data centres.
Google is known for trying to keep its installations as green
and planet-friendly as possible, making use of highly-efficient power supplies and renewable energy in its operations.
Microsoft
The tech giant of Windows and Office software fame nowadays boasts a massive cloud services and infrastructure as
well. Composed of more than 100 globally distributed datacenters, edge computing nodes and service operations centers, this infrastructure is supported by one of the world’s
largest multi-terabit global networks, with an extensive dark
fiber footprint that connects them all.
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