Data Centers for Facebook and Google: Juiciness in Alleged Facts

August 16, 2010

Navigate to “Two Data Centers Present a Study in Contrasts.” The information in the write up is germane to search and social networking. A happy qua ck to Theodoric Meyer, who did a very good job on this article for the Dalles (Oregon) Chronicle.

Dalles? Yep, that’s the town in which first Google, then Facebook, decided to set up power sucking data centers. In the olden days, data centers had lots of people. Today’s data centers are designed to be as close to people free as possible. Humans wandering around a data center filled with itty-bitty gizmos crunching lots of data can get screwed up in a heartbeat if a clumsy human does something like pull a plug or punch a button to see what happens.

You will want to read the full write up by Mr. Meyer. Here are the factoids that I noted:

Google set up shop in scenic and struggling Dalles in 2006. Now Facebook with its Xooglers is on the same path.
Data center managers have to make nice with city officials, particularly in places like scenic and struggling Dalles.
Facebook is doing a better job of building bridges that Google’s Math Club crowd did.
No Oreogon taxes will be paid on the data centers for 15 years. (A big yes to the American market system.) A minimum number of hires and higher pay were the requirements Google and Facebook had to meet.
Facebook’s facility will have 147,000 square feet or about 2.2 American football fields. That’s almost as big a typical trailer here in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky.
Facebook power consumption will be at 30 megawatts with a need to access up to 90 megawatts of power. BGF (before Google and Facebook), the township used 30 megawatts of power.
Google has done “a lot of good” in Dalles.

The key factoid. The fellow responsible for Google’s Dalles facility has been hired by Facebook. You can take the Xoogler out of Google but you can’t take the Google out of the Xoogler.

And that contrast? Math Club compared to making nice with political officials.

Stephen E Arnold, August 16, 2010

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Cloud computing, Facebook, Financial, Google, News, Technology

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.