Google search technology
Google data centers are the computer software and large hardware resources Google uses to provide their services. This article describes the technological infrastructure behind Google's websites as presented in the company's public announcements.
The locations of Google's various data centers are as follows:
Europe:
Asia:
The original hardware (circa 1998) that was used by Google when it was located at Stanford University included:
Google uses commodity-class x86 server computers running customized versions of Linux. The goal is to purchase CPU generations that offer the best performance per dollar, not absolute performance. How this is measured is unclear, but it is likely to incorporate running costs of the entire server, and CPU power consumption could be a significant factor. Servers as of 2009–2010 consisted of custom-made open-top systems containing two processors (each with several cores), a considerable amount of RAM spread over 8 DIMM slots housing double-height DIMMs, and at least two SATA hard disk drives connected through a non-standard ATX-sized power supply unit. The servers were open top so more servers could be fit into a rack. According to CNET and to a book by John Hennessy, each server had a novel 12-volt battery to reduce costs and improve power efficiency.
According to Google their global data center operation electrical power ranges between 500 and 681 megawatts. The combined processing power of these servers might have reached from 20 to 100 petaflops in 2008.
Details of the Google worldwide private networks are not publicly available but Google publications make references to the "Atlas Top 10" report that ranks Google as the third largest ISP behind Level 3.
In order to run such a large network with direct connections to as many ISP as possible at the lowest possible cost Google has a very open peering policy.
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