"Google Data Center 360 ° Tour" that allows you to look around at 360 degree view through Google's data center

The state of the inside of the data center which can be said as the heart of Google which manages enormous data is released in a 360 degree movie which can survey around 360 degrees around. In the movie, you can see how inside you can not get in first, and various technologies to manage a huge data center are told, and it is quite interesting content.

Google Data Center 360 ° Tour - YouTube


At the beginning of the movie is the word "Best Viewed on Google Cardboard". This 360 degree movie can make VR (virtual reality) goggles with smartphoneGoogle CardboardBy using, you are able to have a VR experience that you are as if you are on the spot.


Please note that the Galaxy"Gear VR"Even if you have a real machine you can try it because it is confirmed that it will work.

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Ms. Sun Deep of Google is a guide for this tour. I'm infiltrating the Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon, to shoot a lot of the inside. There are strict security controls at this entrance and it is only a limited number of Google employees who can enter inside.


First of all, in the lobby, Noah of site relability engineer (SRE) explained the contents of work. SRE is a technician who manages the server system to operate without problems, and it is said that SRE has a structure to cope with troubles in a 24-hour shift system. Also, in order to prevent such problems from occurring, it seems that redundancy such as electric power and network environment is preliminarily applied.


Even in the middle of a story, it is possible to move around the screen and see the surroundings.


And from here to the inside of the data center. The entrance on the other side of Mr. Sandeep is the entrance to a strictly managed data center.


The entrance is a double door and it scans the iris of the eyeIris recognitionOnly people who have been checked by the system are supposed not to go inside. Furthermore, there is only one person at a time inside, and it is said that it is the rule that two security staff attend.


Finally inside the data center. You can see that Gissiri and server rack are lined up in a room that seems to be wide. Also check the presence of security staff standing behind Sandeep.


Looking around the surroundings, literally it is filled with server rack. It is said that all the machines on the floor of this building are operating as one cluster and in order to manage the clusterBorg(Cluster manager) andColossus(Distributed file system),Spanner(Database) and other tools to make it suitable for scalable applications.


Mr. Virginia of senior network engineer appeared. The data center has capacity to store as many as 75,000 servers, and the building's overall bandwidth will reach as much as 1 PB (petabytes) per second. Mr. Virginia seems to be engaged in the management of enormous hardware.


All the hardware used in Google's data center is custom made, and the flexibility and the performance to meet Google's demand are realized. These devices are always added, it seems that every day we do maintenance to realize various services provided by Google and cloud services.


Google has more than ten such data centers worldwide,SDNBase dedicated backbone "B4"It is said that we are managing a huge amount of data by connecting with.


This room is a storage room for storing actual data.


Actually used data, such as when searching a huge database with BigQuery or uploading data to Google's cloud, is stored and utilized in HDDs and SSDs placed in such space That's why.


What I visited next is a room for destroying storage devices such as HDDs and SSDs that have been disposed of. When San Diep hands the HDD that was supposed to be disposed to the staff ......


Firstly with a scanner.


And throw it in from the top of the machine.


And this machine "shredder machine" physically crushed the storage equipment into shattered pieces. By doing this, it is said that we reliably discard unnecessary equipment and prevent users' data from leaking.


In the next room, we are talking to Brian, the facility manager of the data center.


Numerous pipes painted in 4 colors of Google color. Cooling water flows through these pipes, and it cools the entire equipment and the building. A cylindrical machine that looks a little in the center is a cooler for lowering the temperature of the cooling water, but it is rare to operate this machine. So what about exactly how much heat is being discharged ......


It seems that a huge cooler "Cooling Tower" installed on the rooftop plays the role. This machine said that it adopts a mechanism to lower the temperature of the cooling water by utilizing the heat of vaporization when water evaporates, so that "cloud (cloud) occurs to realize the cloud I am doing it. " In this way, energy efficiency is improved by utilizing the natural environment and natural conditions, and it shows the energy efficiency of the entire buildingPUEThe value of1.14 has been realizedAnd that. Generally speaking, it is said that "efficiency is good" when PUE becomes 2.0, you can see how efficient Google data center is.


A dedicated substation is also built in the data center to manage the power used in the facility. The electricity used here basically uses what was made by a nearby hydroelectric power plant, and Google told us that it uses green energy.