Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Google and CERN

As you may have noticed, I'm facinated by all things Google. This article from the CERN Courier, a journal of high-energy physics, is by Urs Hölzle, Google's vice-president of operations, and it provides a rare peak behind the curtain.

The article discusses the similarities between the needs of Google and CERN, which both must deal with very large amounts of data. He discusses some of the hardware changes Google has it's vendors make in order to improve energy efficiency. Google employs mechanical engineers to help with the design of their datacenter. Although it doesn't say it in the article, the implication is that they treat their datacenter as part of the machine, not just some place the machines sit.

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