Monday, April 13, 2009

Google battery backed shipping container server

According to "Google uncloaks once-secret server" (Stephen Shankland, CNET, 1 April 2009) google uses a 12 Volt battery to back up each of its servers. The servers have two disk drives and two CPUs in a 3.5 inch high unit and then puts 1,160of them in a shipping container. What is not clear is if Google actually puts these in industry standard racks, or in some lower cost mounts.

The batteries used seem to be gel sealed lead acid units. Presumably these are designed to last the life of the server and not be replaced individually.

The Google server looks logically designed. My only slight worry is that the unit pictured looks like a DIY prototype, not a finished product which tens of thousands of are made. The article is dated 1 April and Google have previously produced April fools day jokes. But there seem to be other independent postings reporting on the design as well, from a data centre efficiency summit.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

It's not DIY prototype. It's the real thing. Cost is important.