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April 11, 2008

Where Are All The Google Data Centers?

Erick Schonfeld

85 comments »

google-data-center-map-usjpg.jpg

Google’s data infrastructure is massive and spread across the world. All that Web crawling, indexing, and searching takes enormous amounts of computing power, not to mention everyone pounding away at Gmail, Google Apps, Blogger, Google Reader, and every other project dreamed up at the Googleplex. But where are all of these data centers and how many are there? Google doesn’t really say. But that doesn’t keep people from trying to figure it out. Royal Pingdom has out together this map of all known Google data centers, including spaces it leases and that are under construction. The maps are based on this list compiled by Data Center Knowledge. (And, no, Royal Pingdom didn’t put these on Google Maps).

There are 36 data centers in all—19 in the U.S., 12 in Europe, 3 in Asia, and one each in Russia and South America. Future data center sites may include Taiwan, Malaysia, Lithuania, and Blythewood, South Carolina, where Google has reportedly bought 466 acres of land.

Anyone know how many data centers Microsoft keeps, or Yahoo, or IBM, for that matter?

googel-data-center-map-europe.jpggoogle-data-center-map-world.jpg

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles, Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. joshua

    April 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    Interesting that there are none (none known) in New England.

  2. Andrew

    April 11th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    isn’t it more interesting that there are known in the entire continent of Africa?!

  3. Andrew

    April 11th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    *make that ‘none’ - you should be able to edit your own comments!
    Have a good weekend everyone.

  4. Jesse

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    been to the center in Atlanta and i will say it is impressive.

  5. proofread

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    get spellcheck! …”keep peopel from…” lol

  6. Shawn Petriw

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    You’d think they make better use of northern climates to keep the cost of cooling all those racks down. Where are all the centres in the Great White North?

  7. Kori Covrigaru

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    What about Ann Arbor, MI?

  8. Steve

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    So is that where they keep de internets?

  9. COP

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Microsoft.. Datacenter?? well look around.. they are all around you.. those Desktop PCs.. oh yeah baby.. Microsoft Datacenter=Your PC

  10. nobosh.com

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    Erick, how much do each of these data centers costs to build and maintain every year?

  11. ex-Googler

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    I can only laugh at all your complete misguided speculations.

    Because if I were to confirm or deny any of them, the men in black would surely pay me a visit.

  12. Blue Sunshine

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

    They had one in Antarctica until GWAR destroyed it. Damnit GWAR.

    http://www.miscgarbage.com

  13. Uway

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm

    @cop lol..i like the spin on that one. Just like Microsoft Google will fall.

  14. jenkins

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    Another attempt by Techcrunch to manufacture content, any content, other than which is about start-ups. It’s NOT going to work. Stick to your one-trick pony — start-ups!

  15. kit

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    jenkins and ex-googler own techcrunch. w00t!

  16. Andrew

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    where is Techrunch’s ‘we only cover startups’ tag-line? I can’t see it anywhere on this site!

  17. 113.com

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    They don’t like Asia much, eh?

  18. Michael B

    April 11th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    Wow that is a lot of data centers.

    http://mikesmoneyclub.blogspot.com

  19. BionicPimp

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    There are none in Australia? That is surprising. Then again, there aren’t any in South Korea either and 80 percent of households have access to 20mbps internet. Also surprising is that Japan *is* a site of a google Data Center, and yet the Japanese prefer their cellphones instead of computers as their data network of choice.

  20. jenkins

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

    Andrew,

    I don’t expect you to do your own homework so here it is straight from the “about us” tab on the site. Be careful next time!

    TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.

    What does Google’s data center locations have to do with this?

    You must be sleepy if you like reading this kind of stuff from writers that haven’t foggiest clue what a data center is.

  21. browse

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

    they’ll need twice that many when my app engine app launches. . .

  22. Andrew

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    @jenkins

    I must admit that I see these ‘techcrunch stick to your knitting’ comments alot on here and I was thinking about it. I’ll happily read if:

    a) their remit is ’startups and interesting items for startup owners’ - which datacenters and their location surely is
    b) the quality of their writing and analysis remains as good as it is now

    Sleepy I am perhaps - but that’s just a reaction to a long week and Friday :-)

  23. @jenkins

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Jenkins, nice specific omission of “In addition to covering new companies, we profile existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space” from the About page.

  24. chris (trade2save.com)

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    It is an emerging trend in the industry for data centers to use containers. Sun Microsystems has been selling them in increasing numbers.

    Each Container combines storage, computing, and network infrastructure hardware and software—along with high-efficiency power and liquid cooling—in modular units based on standard 20-by-8-by-8-foot shipping containers.

  25. jenkins

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    @jenkins

    So, is that supposed to be a “catch-all” that enables TC to write about every/any inane issue they can simply make up? How about this one:

    Here’s a location of all the Microsoft offices:

    http://www.microsoft.com/about.....fault.mspx

    Yeehaw! This is awesome!

  26. Eneko

    April 11th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    None in Spain, none in Portugal :-( I new I lived in the Third World…

  27. Tom Poser

    April 11th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    Unfortunately I cannot post it here, and I do not have it posted on my site (I should work on that) but I do have some pretty amazing data center construction information. I work in SF but we have an incredible group that manages and builds data centers worldwide, and they produce pretty specific case studies with hard numbers. If anyone is interested let me know and I will see what I can email out, and what I am allowed to share externally.

    Tom Poser

  28. ZiZi

    April 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    what da F!!!! we dont have one in spain!?? screw you google!!

  29. Andrew

    April 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    Ultimately like any publication, Techcrunch is a take-it-or-leave it proposition.

    Michael and his crew are free to write about anything and we either read it or don’t — it’s a waste of time to moan on and on about it!

  30. jose ignacio

    April 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    :O a data center in brazil?wy in chile dont have only one??? just one
    two days ago google have a love with latin americ, and we have only one data center!!!!!!!

  31. Dave

    April 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    Umm… I know geography isn’t necessarily everyone’s strong suit, but really, Toronto, Canada is in North America not Europe.

  32. Markus

    April 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Yeah #20 is definitely in the Toronto region (which is not Europe, nor the United States).

  33. watch tv

    April 11th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Google Data Centers have two in China,ah

  34. Atorips

    April 11th, 2008 at 8:08 pm

    Yahoo data centers don’t kown

  35. xbrain

    April 11th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

    malaysia will be the next gigantic datacenter for google

  36. Afraid of the Dark

    April 12th, 2008 at 12:08 am

    there is a secret google data center inside magic mountain in disneyland.

  37. Dave

    April 12th, 2008 at 4:08 am

    I wonder how many its got right.

    I bet there are people at Google who are laughing!

  38. Goorsha Billu

    April 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am

    In his opening paragraph, Erick said, “Google’s data infrastructure is massive and spread across the world”. Rather, he should have said: Google’s data infrastructure is massive and spread across the world, except Africa.

    It is sad, depressing and ignorant to simply forget Africa. With the limited resources we have in Africa, one can find capable people in all corners of Africa.

    With cheaper power costs with in Africa, at least Google could have considered one or more countries in Africa for a data center. The region of Africa that might be suitable for data centers is East Africa (either Ethiopia or Kenya).

    I hope that Google will consider Africa in its future expansion.

  39. Kevin H

    April 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    I know for certain that google has a data-center in Sacramento, and it is not on this graph. I’ve seen it with my own eyes (google has a cage co-located near the area where my previous employer had a few racks worth of co-location). So don’t take it for granted that because it’s not on this graph, it doesn’t exist.

  40. hey

    April 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Using JPGs for maps (was techcrunch is doing here) is bad form.

  41. tmc

    April 12th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    Data Centers should be either underground bunkers… (cooler below ground) or very high up in buildings (to take advantage of natural wind cooling). Why use electricity to cool mainframe/super data centers?

  42. iNcOgniTo_IN

    April 12th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    I DONT SEE ANY DATA CENTRE IN INDIA??? WHAT DO YOU CALL IT! OPPERTUNITY OR ANOTHER MISS:)

  43. Vinay

    April 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    Hmm.. no Data Center in India.. I don’t have a clue how they handle the traffic from there! This tip http://www.google.co.uk/search.....&meta= shows that they have already started …? Confused! LoL!

  44. fackno

    April 12th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    @iNcOgniTo_IN
    A Google datacentre is always stationed close to electricity and some form of water basin. Many servers its employees use on a less frequent basis aren’t even located in Google branded datacenters.

  45. marvin

    April 12th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    “In his opening paragraph, Erick said, “Google’s data infrastructure is massive and spread across the world”. Rather, he should have said: Google’s data infrastructure is massive and spread across the world, except Africa.

    It is sad, depressing and ignorant to simply forget Africa. With the limited resources we have in Africa, one can find capable people in all corners of Africa.”

    Many regions of Africa are either corrupt (government wise), war-torn, or both. This is why they probably don’t have a data center there.

  46. jack

    April 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    @ Dave

    Yep, we’re passing this around the office now, and having quite a chuckle. :)

  47. jack

    April 12th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

    Also, it’s not exactly difficult to pinpoint the big ones, just look at the job listings @ google.com/jobs

  48. Son Nguyen

    April 12th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

    Nothing in Australia and very few in Asia. No wonder they’re not doing very well there

  49. Federalie

    April 12th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    Uhhh you missed a few. Like the one in Phoneix, Az.

  50. Planet Lowyat

    April 12th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    How about Yahoo DC, Micro$oft DC, Sun DC, Apple DC, Cisco DC, HP DC, Dell DC, Acer DC, IBM DC, and etc?

  51. ex-googler2

    April 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    @ex-googler:

    So true… So true…

    Can’t confirm nor deny :)

  52. Matt

    April 13th, 2008 at 5:26 am

    Google also have a whole floor in a London level3 data centre that I work in…

  53. Mis-direction is ur friend

    April 13th, 2008 at 7:46 am

    Haha… Level3 has over 8 Million sq ft of colocation… All built *on* top of the largest Internet backbone. Get in line :)

    Google is laughing… they don’t need that much data center space. It takes too much electricity to cool empty space. Why would they need at do you think they use old IBM bi-polar mainframes and discarded Cray XMP’s?

    quote from web site
    As a leading provider of colocation services in the United States, Level 3 has over 270 U.S. facilities located in 116 markets and 11 European sites. Connectivity between sites is available via our Metro Services and within our sites via cross connects.

  54. CG

    April 13th, 2008 at 10:05 am

    It is time for the next searchengin with more brain and less powerconsumtion.
    First steep http://www.playaudiovideo.com and next step soon…

  55. Dario Cedeno V.

    April 13th, 2008 at 11:23 am

    I think there will be more data centers out there.

    How the handle the india and china traffic?

  56. Tyler

    April 13th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    None in Canada eh.

  57. artifex

    April 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Your tweet wondered what % of US electricity is used by Google data centers.

    A more interesting question is what percentage of Google’s energy is free (generated by hydro/solar) as opposed to others’? Because that’s a major expense they’re making an effort to save, and in cases where they generate it themselves or it’s the local underused hydro dam, it’s also not competing with the public for that power.

  58. googler3

    April 13th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    google data center’s run AMD proc’s on heavily modified red hat and some gentoo.

  59. Hernan

    April 14th, 2008 at 12:34 am

    The info on latin america is wrong, th eonly google office and datacentr in latin america is en Argentina, not brazil.

  60. Ryan - Tech Span

    April 14th, 2008 at 2:40 am

    I’ve heard Google have around 6,70,000 servers for the search engine. If that’s true, it goes without saying that it would be next to impossible for a new startup to beat Google at search.

  61. Jeff D

    April 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am

    I’d be interested to see how many of those data centers are located near sources of hydroelectric power. One of the reasons Google built the center in Hickory NC was easy access to cheap power which was no longer being used due to the decline of the textile industry in that area.

    That allows Google to contract with the dam for all of their power over long periods at set prices.

  62. XPW

    April 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    @38: Africa has since the beginning of the Internet had the most expensive bandwidth costs in the world. Most African countries are predominantly reliant on satellie bandwidth which is horrendously expensive, and the others are reliant on undersea cables run by incumbent operators who charge like wounded buffalo. South Africa would be the best bet for Google, although with the vast amounts of bandwidth required by them - and 1GB costing around R50 wholesale (around $6.50) it could still take a long, long time. For more info on the poor state of Africa’s internet situation visit http://www.balancingact-africa.com or http://www.hellkom.co.za

  63. You

    April 14th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    One of pottential data centre locations is Latvia.
    DEAC new data centre are opening in June
    http://www.deac.eu

  64. Derek Winter

    April 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm

    I am an Australian,resident in Brisbane Qld. I can vouch that Google does have a data centre in Sydney NSW.

  65. Mike

    April 20th, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    @Vinay:

    Bank of America has enough datacenters in India…. There’s no room left for Google.

  66. CG

    April 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 am

    WE can have 12 Billion pages with only 2 000 servers. Not 180 000 as have Google or more.

  67. Dallas J Clark

    April 29th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    interesting to see none in Australia, why not ?

  68. Quiz

    May 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I was under the impression there was also a center in Mississippi around MSU?

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