“In a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn’t just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We’re talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid.”
Really, That’s all I can say about that.
I dont understand Google’s business model at all.
They are supposedly this major player right now, constantly mentioned in the same breath as Microsoft. This article talks about how they are going to co-opt the internet, and how they have 300 uber-powerful “portable” data centers ready to be deployed.
But where’s this money coming from? I’ve never given Google a cent. I use their engine dozens of times a day, and yeah i see their ads on their site and elsewhere, but you can’t tell me Google is going to take over the internet on Ad revenue.
What am i missing here? And more importantly, what’s Google’s business plan after they take over the planet? It can’t be altuistic.
Googles money comes from
a) adsense (seems to be quite a bit of money…)
b) the IPO
As to where this is leading? I have no idea. But it is fun watching all those obsessed with google (pro, and anti that is 😉
You’re forgetting the biggest source of their revenue — selling their search engine services to companies looking to make their internal databases easily searchable.
I must admit, I’m also confused about their plan.
I use Google because it’s a no-frills search engine, with an uncluttered UI. I must admit, I hadn’t even noticed the adverts on results until someone had pointed them out, because they’re so unobtrusive. It amazes me that they’re (apparently) so big – but I can’t help but feel they’re setting themselves up for a very big fall.
They’re tackling too many things at once and losing sight of what they do best – simple, uncluttered searching.
It’ll be a shame if they go – hopefully another company will come along to replace them.
its always good to be suspicious of organisations which have the power and the means to change somehting as core and important as the internet. some have already suggested that government is already influcencing google – if you control google you control thevast majority of information and its presentation.
i can imagibe not water or oil wars but information wars.
distrust will get you far young man, stop drooling over little shiny things.
I have always felt that Cringely gives a clear view of the topic he is speaking on but this time I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the “how part” of what Google is attempting to set up. If high speed internet is accessible by only 35% of the people in the United States how dose additional data centers improve connect-ability. For the majority of people the data still has to end up squeezing through a 56kbs pipe. There must be something I’m missing. Anybody help me out?
Sure
1 a) Broadband connections are growing much faster than Dial-up, which is probably not growing at all. In addition, exciting new things on the web that require broadband connections will entice consumers to chose broadband over dial-up.
1 b) Public and private Wifi access points are spreading and becoming more popular. This is a form of high-speed Internet people will have ready access to.
2) One of the keys a successful web service is to provide the highest possible QoS (Quality of Service) to your users. This means having the uptime, bandwidth, and latency ready to meet their needs. By scattering your data-centers around major internet your load is distributed geographically, with readily available alternative locations in case one center goes down or reaches capacity. Poor response times will annoy users and make them go elsewhere.
Thanks for clearing up the image. In other word they are building as if the future is already here. You would think though that a finite growth point would be reached if they don’t address the issue of greater adoption of high speed bandwidth. The larger cities are currently the centers of focus but a large percentage of the users in the United States live in the rural areas.
Broadband connections are growing much faster than Dial-up, which is probably not growing at all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree. When Verizon is offering DSL for $14.95 USD per month and AOL is offering dial-up for about $25.00 USD per month, who are you gonna choose?
I agree. When Verizon is offering DSL for $14.95 USD per month and AOL is offering dial-up for about $25.00 USD per month, who are you gonna choose?
It really does depend, doesn’t it? I’m a mobile, freelance software engineer, and I have all three:
1) DSL for home/office;
2) Cellular/Wireless (Verizon) for when I’m on the road, and need (very) minimal connectivity;
3) Dial-up for when I can’t find a Wifi hotspot.
You’d be surprised how often, even with all three, I have to punt and find a starbucks, or pay $9.95 for an hour or two of time at an airport.
DSL is nice when you stay home. Dial-up, especially with a nation-wide ISP (EG: Earthlink) can be very handy if you have to get around much.
I thought the US had already crossed the 50% mark using broadband, UK can’t be far behind. Anyway the assumption is that broadband will be the bulk of the market that Google would care about. Still don’t make of the article unless Google wants to serve up TV on demand. Ironic is that the Beeb wants to do this too but has no money for delivery.
UK is ahead of US in broadband usage, I’d link you but Firefox has google search built in.
Well, considering most of Google’s services (Google Earth being one notable exception) are minimalist wrt design and functionality, Google services are very useful even over 56k. Very few images, judicious use of Flash, and (eventually) efficient use of JavaScript + XML + XHTML + CSS. For example: gmail is great unless you have way too many large attachments.
Cringely said that they were trying to reduce the LATENCY between them and their consumers. Really, he means fewer network hops. This should probabilistically reduce the chances of network congestion/saturation killing your experience. Even if you have redundant fiber optic lines to your box, it won’t matter because network congestion will keep you from the information you want. People on dialup get screwed even worse, as their connections are more likely to time out and forcing them to simply give up and go somewhere else.
Put simply, dialup users could rest assured that, unlike many narrowband unfriendly services (e.g. Yahoo Mail of 2 years ago with its obnoxious Flash ads), their Google will always work and be useful, and they’ll only have to wait a few seconds longer.
–JM
I hope the container is well-padded & shock-proof. I’ve seen how the ILA handles containers. It ain’t pretty.
I’m glad to see some of you questioning the big picture here, what does it all means, where is google getting its sudden power, and where is it all leading…
connect the dots
And those dots would be…?
I’m not trying to be facetious, just curious as to what it is you’re trying to say.
Could these be mini Google’s? yes
Could these be used as WiMax AP’s? yes
Google is starting to offer more and more every year.
Their next big thing is going to be the online office, and people are going to want their data fast, along with any other content that is tied to Google.
Buying up fiber sounds to me that they are going to ISP biz, not on a small scale, but huge scale.
If they jump on WiMax fast, and get into the market before anyone else… well they won.
I dont see these contaners filled to the brim with computer gear. This is what I see…
Cooling, UPS’s, AP’s+equip(local auth and etc)+linking, Fiber, security, then the computer gear, and im guessing ~500TB.
A PB, not sure.. depends on where its located. If anything you could put 2 of them side by side.
There still is alot of “last mile” areas in the US, im one of them. Google could make some money here.
Imagine that; someone likes your idea and suddenly you have $ billions in the bank. The only way google can go wrong is by wasting the money. If they just carried on running their search engine they could run it forever on the interest from that investment.
That wont work though because capital requires a return, now they have to start making lots of money.
So they uniquely have tons of cash (more than they know what to do with) and yet are desperate for ideas to make more at the same time.
If they build 300 or 3000 or 30,000 data centres thats a pretty good way to waste all the capital they are sitting on really fast. And owning the Internet is worth what?
Maybe they should spend the money they have raised on a real world company. They should buy GM or something.
Imagine that; someone likes your idea and suddenly you have $ billions in the bank. The only way google can go wrong is by wasting the money. If they just carried on running their search engine they could run it forever on the interest from that investment.
That’s not exactly how they got all their money. They worked their way up to a billion dollars a year in revenue before the IPO ever happened.
When I posted the above comment, “Translation needed” I said that 35 percent of the people in the United States had high speed internet service. Thats wrong. I googled for more info and found this:
“September 28, 2005) – About 60 percent of U.S. internet users now have high-speed connections – this is about 42 percent of households, up from 36 percent at the beginning of the year – according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which reported that in August 121 million Americans had broadband access, up from 103.8 million in the beginning of the year. Nielsen said low-cost broadband options would continue to increase penetration.”
Whats still curious about this is that 42% of U.S. households have high speed connections and the other 58% have either the 56k or no access. Well if I’m not reading this right I’m sure some one will let me know.
Edited 2005-11-20 21:48
42% of US housholds have broadband, which is 60% of all internet connections. That would mean only 70% of US households have internet access. 70% – 42% would leave 28% of US households that use dialup and 30% that do not have internet access.
that Google has like 15 billion cash laying around…easily accessible…no matter what anyone says…the Internet was gettign rather boring till Google came along. You have to admit they have been quite innovative. There are the naysayers I know but still…keep it up Google.
All those processors, the memory and the storage in a container-sized box: won’t it all melt when you turn it on? I mean, all the heat generated in a box like that must do some damage!
I imagine creating a product that won’t melt is one of the project’s goals.
I bet that’s where the “very bright” designers come in
I don’t know about melting, but if I knew where they’d buried one in my ‘hood, I’d be down there with a JCB the same night to rescue it!
Cooling units are a given.
office apps and crap that are online is pointless and just wastes bandwidth… all very dumb.
just download the damn application why do you need to use it online, how retarded.
the netscape vision failed. fills out wires up with crap
at the incredibly short-sighted posts! While I agree that successfuly company should stick to what it does well, and that Google does web search well, this is but a single product of a larger core proficiency: distributed information services over IP. Google is better than anyone else at indexing/storing information for quick retrieval by a massive and sparse network of clients (and they’re better than anyone else at turning this service into advertising revenue).
So, the question is, what kinds of information does Google want to index/store, how (in what form) will they serve it to the clients, and what do they need to do to make it scale? The dark fiber provides key access to entry points on the internet backbone and the datacenters provide distributed information processing. This plan further distributes their capacity to handle requests and provide richer services. It moves google closer to the client, from 20+ hops to something more like 10 hops.
Users will be able to find, access, and consume whatever media they want, whether it’s a webpage, an email, a map, a consumer item, a song, a movie, a tv show, etc., and google will, as always, provide targeted advertisements through AdSense. It’s a simple, effective, and scalable business model.
He hwo controls rome, controlls the world.
Modern version
He hwo controls google, controlls the world
in Soviet Russia, Google controls YOU !
sad but true