Google's top secret Data center

     GOOGLE's TOP-SECRET DATA CENTER

Google, which probably owns the largest number of computer servers in the world and a sizable chunk of the internet itself, has finally opened the doors of some its data centers to the curious, prying eyes of outsiders.

Google operates a number of major data centers around the world, mostly in the US and Europe, which act as hubs for its smaller, regional installations. In this case, Google has taken most of the wraps off its Lenoir, North Carolina data center, which has been in operation since 2008. This makes it one of Google’s older data centers, and according to Wired it will soon be obsolete and in need of refitting (which is probably why Google is showing us it). Starting today, you can use Google Street View to walk around the Lenoir data center.

In addition to Lenoir, Google has also provided some utterly beautiful photos of its other data centers. We still have very few details of the actual hardware being used, or the software that knits Google’s infrastructure together, or any raw figures on power usage and efficiency — but hey, stop asking questions and look at the pretty photos!

Google’s Council Bluffs, Iowa data center

 More water pipes, this time at Google’s Douglas County, Georgia data center. The green units on the left are refrigeration units.

The same water pipes, but with a bicycle for scale

Pressurized, filtered water to put out any fires in the data center

An overhead view of the Council Bluffs, Iowa data center

Council Bluffs data center: Cold air is pumped up through the floor, and then kept in with the plastic barriers

A bunch of hard drives — Google goes through quite a few, presumably

A delightful mess of Google-colored cables

And finally, a happy photo of some water storage tanks at Google’s Saint Ghislain data center in Belgium

More pretty water pipes…

Lots of servers, at Google’s Douglas County data center. Blue LEDs mean the servers are healthy, apparently

Water pipes at Google’s Hamina, Finland data center. Here, sea water is pumped in to cool the servers.

Some servers at the Hamina, Finland Google data center

Some very orderly network cables

Google’s tape backup system, at its Berkeley County data center

Racks of servers (and switches at the top), at Google’s Mayes County, Oklahoma data center