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2024: Google launches its first data centre in Africa

On January 31, 2024, Google announced the launch of its first cloud region in the Republic of South Africa. The Johannesburg-based data centre aims to accelerate the development of the African tech ecosystem.

It is estimated that by 2025 the Internet economy of Africa will reach $180 billion, which will be approximately 5.2% of the continent's GDP. Google has allocated $1 billion to stimulate digital transformation in the region. Key growth factors are investment in IT infrastructure and support for startups. The new Google Cloud region is said to allow customers of all sizes across the continent to take advantage of high-performance, low-latency, secure cloud services. Customers will get the computing resources they need to scale services, innovate, and compete globally.

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With the addition of the Johannesburg region, the Google Cloud platform as of the end of January 2024 has 40 cloud regions and 121 zones that provide services in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Like all regions of Google Cloud, the new data center is connected to Google's secure network of high-bandwidth fiber-optic cables on land and underwater. It includes, in particular, the Equiano underwater highway, which connects Portugal with Togo, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and St. Helena.

Google also runs various support programs for African startups, including Black Founders Fund Africa and Google for Startups Accelerator Africa. These initiatives have helped 106 young companies in 17 African countries. These startups have collectively raised over $263 million in funding, creating over 2,800 jobs.Heita^[1]

2023: Google data centers began operating on boiling water from a depth of 2 km

On November 28, 2023, Google announced the launch of a new type of geothermal power plant that will supply power to the company's Nevada data centers. The capacity of the system as of the indicated date is 3.5 MW. Read more here.

2022

Refusal to build a data center worth $600 million due to the crisis in the United States

On December 22, 2022, it became known that Google abandoned a large-scale project to build a data center (DPC) worth approximately $600 million due to the current macroeconomic situation

We are talking about a site that was planned to be located in the city of Becker (Minnesota, USA). Google first announced the creation of the data center in 2019. The data center was to be built near the local Sherco power plant. However, in December 2022, it turned out that Honeycrisp Power, a Google partner, did not provide the energy supplier Xcel with the necessary documents to provide the project with electricity. As a result, Xcel terminated the service agreement for the future data center. The creation of the site has been stopped, while Google does not talk about the possible timing of the resumption of work.

Google refused to invest in data centers in Minnesota due to the US crisis

We are proud to be involved in the development of Minnesota and remain committed to creating new jobs in this state. Although this project is not currently moving forward [by the end of December 2022], this does not exclude participation in projects in the future, "said a representative of the American IT giant.

It was assumed that the data center infrastructure will be located on about 120 hectares of land. About 50 permanent employees were supposed to work here. Industry participants say Google's decision to wind down the project could be directly related to the US crisis. Against the background of deteriorating financial performance, the company previously promised to revise all its projects to "make sure that resources are allocated effectively" and, based on the results obtained, make the necessary changes. Probably, the refusal to create a large and expensive data center is one of these changes. Earlier it was also reported that Google remains silent about the new data center in Bissen (Luxembourg).^[2]

Iowa data center explosion

In August 2022, there were reports that an explosion occurred at Google's data center in Iowa. So far, data on a large explosion has not been confirmed, but three employees of the center were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The Google complex, located next to the park near Lake Manawa, is one of the company's largest data centers, home to hundreds of supercomputers used to store and process large amounts of information.

In Britain, data centers melt from the heat

In mid-July 2022 data centers Google Oracle Great Britain , problems began in work due to record high air temperatures. The country is experiencing abnormal heat, and the air temperature in the country has set a new record, exceeding 40 ° C.

According to information on the Google Cloud page, one of the buildings in London, where cloud services for one of the regions of Western Europe are located, on July 19, 2022, faced a cooling failure in the morning. The company turned off power to services in part of that region to fix the problem.

Oracle is experiencing similar problems. The company's Service Health page says Oracle is working to repair the cooling system at its London data center (DPC) and has shut down some services to prevent uncontrolled hardware failures. The company said it expects service to be fully restored by July 24, 2022.

Airedale International Aftermarket Director Adrian Trevelyan said that many London data centers are forced to resort to such an unusual cooling method as irrigation. Small data centers in densely populated urban areas, operating at almost full capacity, simply require emergency irrigation during the heat. Trevelyan added that this cooling method reduces the air temperature around the coils of the outer cooling circuit so that they continue to effectively dissipate heat, but water of increased stiffness can lead to accumulation of scale.

On July 10, 2022, due to unprecedented temperatures, the London data center Amazon Web Services (AWS) failed. Employees had to spray roof-mounted air conditioning modules with hoses to protect against the heat.

The air temperature in Britain reached the highest value in the history of measurements, in the area of ​ ​ Heathrow Airport in the afternoon on July 19, 2022 recorded 40.2C. Due to the heat in the country for the first time introduced the highest - red level of danger. The authorities warn of the risk to the lives of people, and not only the elderly and suffering from diseases, but also those who are in good physical shape and hardy. Residents are asked not to be in the sun and drink more^[3]

2021: Disclosure of annual water consumption in data centers. Schedule

At the end of December 2022, Google revealed the volume of annual water consumption in its data centers. The company took this step after a lawsuit between The Oregonian and the Dulles authorities, who tried to keep this information secret.

In 2021, The Oregonian requested water consumption data from Google, but did not receive it and turned to Dulles city officials. The authority refused to provide this information, declaring it a commercial secret, after which the publication filed a lawsuit against him. As a result, the Dulles authorities had to compromise on this issue.

Google's water consumption in Dulles has nearly tripled since 2017, with the company's data centers consuming more than a quarter of all the water used in the city by 2021, it has learned. In the coming years, the company's water consumption may continue to grow as Google plans to build two more data centers along the Columbia River, writes The Oregonian on December 21, 2022.

Annual Water Consumption by Google Data Centers in Dulles, Oregon

According to information from court documents, during 2021, about 1.2 billion liters of water were spent at Google facilities, which is much less than the 3.8 billion liters spent by the company's infrastructure in the city of Council Bluffs. In total, in 2021, water consumption at Google facilities in the United States amounted to 12.4 billion liters, and outside the United States about 4.4 billion liters.

Google built its first data center in Dulles in 2005. Since then, she has received tax breaks worth at least $260 million. The company has also become an important component of the local economy, with about 200 employees. In 2021, after the expiration of real estate tax benefits, the original data center was put on tax, which brought in more than $5 million in local taxes.

An increase in the consumption of water data centers by two or three times until 2032 can have serious consequences for the inhabitants of water bodies and other water users in the Dulles. With the city's water consumption doubling from 2002 to 2021, threatening the river flowing here and the individual species of fish that live in it. Google accounts for up to 29% of all urban water consumption! I do not believe that the interests of the whole society were taken into account... It was more of a short-term economic deal... only to attract Google, and then the company became, in fact, a water vampire, "said John DeVoe, director of the non-profit advocacy group WaterWatch.

According to the agreement between Google and the city, Dulles is committed to providing an unspecified amount of water to support the company's expansion. In exchange, the company granted water rights related to its industrial lands, and also donated 15 Ga to Vasco County, and upgraded water systems at its own expense.

In its November 2021 report, Google compares the amount of water used by its data centers to the amount of water used by golf courses in the arid American Southwest. By that metric, the company said, its data centers in Dulles use water equivalent to 30 golf courses.^[4]

2020: Construction of a data center in Poland for $2 billion

At the end of June 2020, it became known that it was Google building To Poland data center in for $2 billion to work with cloud services. This is the largest investment in infrastructure of this type in the country, said Google Cloud To Europe Magdalena Dziewguc, director of business development in Poland and Central and Eastern.

Poland positions itself as a regional technology center, and not surprisingly - in May 2020, Microsoft also announced plans to invest $1 billion in a Polish data center. Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz noted that, according to her estimates, Google can invest in a new project from $1.5 to $2 billion.

Google is building a data center in Poland for $2 billion

Google's plans to launch a new cloud region in Warsaw became known in the fall of 2019. Then Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian wrote in his blog that the choice fell on Warsaw because "Poland is experiencing a period of rapid growth with accelerated digital transformation and has already become an international development center software."

The new data center is expected to serve Poland and Central and Eastern European countries. The new cloud region will have three zones to protect against service disruptions and will launch with a suite of key Google products such as Compute Engine, App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Spanner and BigQuery.

The new data center will be part of Google's network of 20 cloud regions and 61 access zones that serve Google Cloud customers (as of the end of June 2020). The company's partners in this project were Domestic Cloud Provider, Polish Bank and the state investment firm Polish Development Fund. The opening of the Google center is scheduled for early 2021.^[5]

2019

Investing 3 billion euros in European data centers

On September 20, 2019, Google announced an investment of 3 billion euros in the development of data centers in Europe. The budget is designed for 2 years, said the CEO of the company Sundar Pichai at a press conference in Helsinki.

This is fantastic news for Finland, "said Antti Rinne, Prime Minister of Antti Rinne, who also participated in this press conference.

Google chief Sundar Pichai, left, and Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne attend a news conference in Helsinki, September 20, 2019.

According to him, the 3 billion euros named by Google includes 600 million euros of investments in a new data center located in the Finnish city of Hamina. Taking into account these investments, the total costs for this project will amount to 2 billion euros from 2009, which will bring the region 4.3 thousand jobs a year, Rinne said.

From 2007 to September 2019, Google invested more than 15 billion euros in European Internet infrastructure.

The company is building its data centers using renewable energy. In September 2019, Google struck the largest renewable energy purchase deal in its history, nearly half of which will be produced in Europe through the launch of 10 new energy projects.

The agreements will result in investments of more than 1 billion euros in new energy infrastructure in the EU - from a new project to purchase wind energy in Belgium to five solar projects in Denmark and two wind power projects in Sweden, Sundar Pichai said.

A total of 18 new agreements have been concluded, which deal with 1600 MW of energy. This will increase Google's portfolio of deals in the wind and solar market by more than 40%, to 5,500 MW.^[6]

Earlier in September 2019, Google announced plans to build the Tainane Data Center. We are talking about the second data center of the company in Taiwan after the launch of the facility in Zhanghua in 2013.

Google invests 600 million euros in a data center on the Russian border

On May 27, 2019, Google announced an investment of 600 million euros in the construction of a new data center in the Finnish city of Hamina, which is located near the Russian border.

Google already has a data center in Hamin. It is created from a paper mill that Stora Enso sold to an American corporation in 2009. Google spent about 800 million euros on turning the enterprise into a data center.

Google data center in Hamin, which was built in 2011

Google calls this data center one of the most technically advanced and energy efficient on its network. The facility is cooled by seawater from the Gulf of Finland, which has reduced energy consumption.

The new data center in Hamin will also be located on the territory of the former paper mill. It was previously owned by Summa.

Thus, Google's total investment in Hamin will amount to 1.4 billion euros. The secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Employment , Jari Gustafsson, called these investments "good news and evidence of a stable and competitive environment." According to him, the funds allocated by Google strengthen the digital environment in Finland.

The head of the Hamina municipality , Hannu Muhonen, also welcomed Google's investment plans and noted that they contribute to increasing the attractiveness of the region as a whole.

The demand for Google services is growing every day, and we are creating a data center infrastructure to meet these needs. This, in turn, has a positive impact on the Finnish economy, including through the creation of jobs, - said the head of the Finnish representative office of Google Antti Jarvinen.

In addition to Finland, Google has data centers in other European countries, including Holland, Ireland and Belgium (as of May 27, 2019), Reuters news agency notes.^[7]

Google has increased the performance of its wind farms by 20%

On February 27, 2019, it became known that researchers from the DeepMind laboratory taught the neural network to predict the performance of wind turbines in 36 hours based on retrospective data on their performance and weather in a certain area. According to the researchers, the use of such an algorithm has improved the performance of Google's wind farms by 20 percent.

Wind power plants are one of the most optimal and used methods of alternative energy extraction. Their work is highly dependent on the speed of the wind: the rotor of the windmill should be at an altitude with a fairly high average wind speed (about 4.5 meters per second). However, it can be difficult to reliably predict the wind force pattern at the station location, which can reduce the efficiency of its operation.

Developers from DeepMind (part of Alphabet holding) proposed solving this problem using an algorithm that could reliably predict the energy generated by a wind farm in a certain area based on the available data. They trained the neural network on data on the strength of the wind in a certain area, the weather and the energy generated by a certain wind.

With this, the algorithm can predict the power generated by the station in 36 hours. This gives enough time to assess energy generation and consumption, and to take measures that will save resources for its production. So far, the use of the algorithm (researchers report that they have been testing it since 2018) has helped Google improve the performance of their wind farms by 20 percent: in the future, the company plans to improve the algorithm by collecting data^[8].

2018

Google has fully automated the cooling process of its data centers

In August 2018, it became known about the complete automation of the cooling process. data centers Google Thanks to this, the company was able to reduce energy consumption by 30%, according to a startup at Google, DeepMind which has developed a new control system.

DeepMind programmers have created a new algorithm that, based on information from several thousand sensors, evaluates the equipment cooling system every five minutes. The algorithm is based on a neural network that was trained on data collected over two years.

Google uses artificial intelligence to cool your data centers

The technology predicts the most effective parameters of equipment operation in data centers, ensuring the maintenance of a stable temperature and the minimum possible power consumption.

Google achieved energy savings in data centers by almost 30% in two months after the introduction of the DeepMind development. Although the data center cooling system is fully automated, it is monitored by specialists to make sure that the technology is stable and minimize the risks of overheating or artificial intelligence errors.

Google believes that this algorithm can be used in other areas related to increased energy consumption.

DeepMind began using machine learning to reduce power consumption in 2016. By using the neural network, the company was able to make data centers 15% more energy efficient, as well as reduce energy consumption by 40%.^[9]

It was surprising to see AI learning to use winter conditions and lowering water temperatures, which in turn reduces cooling energy costs . Instructions do not improve over time, but AI is improving, "said Dan Fuenffinger, operator of one of the Google data centers.

Google accounts for almost half of the CO2 emissions from the internet

As reported on May 7, 2018 by Quartz, the site, Google processing about 3.5 billion requests per day, generates about 40% of carbon emissions from everything. Internet Despite the fact that the Internet is "virtual," in fact, it relies on millions of physical ones servers around the data centers world, which are connected through underwater cables, and. switchboards routers Most of the energy sources for the operation of this infrastructure release carbon dioxide gas into the air when burning fuel. One study suggests that emissions from Internet activity are similar to those generated by the global aviation industry.

Researcher Joana Moll created a visualization of CO2GLE data. The service uses 2015 Internet traffic data and is based on the assumption that the Google.com processes an average of 47 thousand requests every second, which is an estimated 500 kg of CO2 emissions per second, or 0.01 kg per request. The numbers are rough, Moll said.

When the publication shared the data with Google, the company did not dispute the calculations. A Google spokesperson also said that providing one user with one month of services creates about the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car per mile, or roughly 360.7 grams of CO2, the publication calculated.

Moll's research has focused on Google, but other websites also contribute to carbon emissions. For example, Facebook said its data centers and business operations in 2016 resulted in 718,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, comparable to annual production SO2 about 77,500 American homes powered by electricity.^[10]

2017

Google is a leader in renewable energy

In 2017, Google became the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the United States. The internet giant has acquired enough clean energy to meet the needs of all its data centers and divisions in the world.

In 2017, Google bought 3 gigawatts of energy from solar, wind farms and other renewable power facilities. As a result, the company was the leader among American corporations in purchasing clean energy. Amazon and Apple took second and third places, according to The Financial Times, citing data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Google has completely switched to renewable energy

Thanks to Google contracts, solar and wind farms around the world have received more than $3 billion from the corporation, said Neha Palmer, head of energy strategy at Google.

Investing in renewable energy is appropriate for our business, "she said, pointing to the falling cost of wind and solar. - These are long-term contracts with fixed prices, and in some markets clean energy costs the same and even cheaper than electricity obtained by the traditional way.

Since she joined Google six years ago, Palmer said, the corporation's energy needs have grown at double-digit rates each year, a dynamic that is likely to continue further.

Since data centers are connected to the power grid, it is usually impossible to directly supply them with electricity from renewable sources. For this reason, Google contracts for the supply of clean energy, and sells unspent surplus in local markets.

Now that Google has achieved its goal and has moved 100% to renewable sources, the company will focus on providing more direct clean energy to the data center. To that end, there are plans to increase investment in energy storage and lobby for policy changes in the electricity market, Palmer added.^[11]

Google is switching completely to solar and wind energy

The company became the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy, reaching a total capacity of 3 GW. Google's total investment in clean power reached $3.5 billion,^[12] writes in November 2017^[13]

Google is officially switching to 100% solar and wind power. The company signed a contract with three wind farms: Avangrid in South Dakota, EDF in Iowa and GRDA in Oklahoma, which have a combined capacity of 535 MW. Now Google offices around the world will consume 3 GW of renewable energy.

The company's total investments in the energy sector reached $3.5 billion, and 2/3 of them are in facilities in the United States. Such interest in "clean" sources is primarily associated with a drop in the cost of solar and wind energy by 60-80% in recent years.

For the first time, Google signed a partnership agreement with a 114 MW solar farm in Iowa back in 2010. By November 2016, the company was already involved in 20 renewable power projects. It was going to completely switch to solar and wind energy back in December 2016. Google is now the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy.

2016: How Google did without Cisco and HP hardware when creating a worldwide data center network

Google has launched one of the largest computer networks in the world, which stretches from the United States to Finland and Taiwan. With its help, the company strives to provide fast Internet services (search, Google Maps, YouTube, etc.) to a huge number of people in different countries. The irony is that Google built this large-scale network without the involvement of companies such as Cisco, Dell, HP and IBM, which supply equipment for many computer networks in the world, writes Wired on January 27, 2016^[14].

Over the past 15 years, the Google network has become so large that the company can no longer do without a cheaper and more efficient way to build it. Traditional equipment is too complex and expensive. In addition, it is quite difficult to manage.

That is why Google, in collaboration with various companies from Asia and elsewhere, has started producing its own flexible products, including servers and network switches. These devices use Google's own software, which can be easily customized for specific tasks, which is not possible with traditional solutions.

Location of Google data centers on the world map by early 2016, Google data

It was Google-style, but the idea found application far beyond the company, Wired notes. The social network Facebook, whose audience has grown to hundreds of millions of people, has also created its own equipment. Then, under the auspices of the non-profit Open Compute Project initiative, the company opened up access to its technologies. Other players can use and improve them, and reduce the cost with the help of mass production. Apple, Microsoft, Rackspace and Goldman Sachs did just that. The new type of equipment that has appeared is not just another creation of Google, but the only real way to create the largest online services.

The Open Compute Project initiative was supported on January 27, 2016 by major telecommunications operators AT&T, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom. As part of a sub-project focused on the telecommunications business, they will explore the possibilities of open servers and network equipment in order to increase efficiency and reduce costs. In Russia, this approach is practiced by the company РДП.ру.

Google Data Center in Iowa

"Everyone is looking for the same synergy and flexibility. The accumulation of experience and the exchange of knowledge will go both ways, "said Gagan Puranik, director of infrastructure planning at Verizon, speaking of his company and others who have already joined Facebook's open hardware experiment.

The telecommunications business is one of the largest buyers of IT equipment in the world. Interest in the Open Compute Project initiative on the part of operators will make it possible to take another big step from traditional data center equipment towards flexible programmable equipment created by Google and Facebook. This certainly undermines the business of companies such as Cisco and HP, writes Wired.

Telecoms companies understand that the benefits they derive from working with traditional suppliers continue to diminish. Open Compute is a natural way of dealing with it. It helps separate more open and flexible equipment supply ecosystems from the manner of existing suppliers to conduct a comprehensive business, says Jay A Rivers (JR Rivers), which once developed hardware at Cisco and helped Google make switches, and now (by the beginning of 2016 - approx. TAdviser) it sells to large customers (including telecommunications) network software similar to the one created by Google.

Google Data Center in Iowa

AT&T has long talked about plans to virtualize 75% of its network by 2020. In other words, the company is moving towards the Google model, which assumes that the logical structure of the network is laid down not in hardware, but in software. This is called Software Configurable Networks (SDNs) and means that AT&T is looking to get rid of legacy hardware.

According to media reports, AT&T has already developed some network equipment to accommodate this transition. In June 2015, the company opened specifications for a number of its developments as part of the Open Compute Project, although then it was not yet involved in this project.

As JA Rivers notes, telecommunications companies cannot implement the latest technologies as quickly as participants in the Internet industry do.

These guys are moving more slowly than any of the web companies. I don't think there will be dramatic changes next year, "he said.

However, these companies are mastering this area and do it publicly. What will Facebook get out of this? After all, he does not belong to telecom. At first glance, it may seem that there is no benefit to the social network from the fact that AT&T or Verizon are engaged in the development of SDN. But there is still indirect benefit. The Facebook service is used in networks run by these telecommunications companies. Therefore, what is good for them is good for Facebook, according to Wired.

Google Data Center in Oklahoma

At the same time, Facebook itself has long been exploring ways to provide Internet access where it is not, using unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites.

We focused on connecting the whole world to the Internet, but we do not intend to do it alone, "said Jason Taylor, head of infrastructure at Facebook.

2011: Data Center Launch in Oklahoma and Data Center Construction Plan in Taiwan

in Construction DPC Oklahoma, Google cost $600 million, the facility was commissioned in the fall of 2011. It employs over 100 employees, they ensure the uninterrupted operation of a number of services Gmail-,, Google Maps Google Search, Google Plus. The company intended to spend another $700 million on expanding its capacities, this amount includes not only construction costs, IT infrastructures but also the arrangement of the adjacent territory. In the neighborhood there will be a cafe, a gym, office space and even a game room.

Another $300 million Google will spend on the construction of a data center in Changghua County in Taiwan to support the growing expansion into Asian markets. Using the example of this facility, the company intends to test for the first time a new energy-saving technology that allows you to change the cooling mode of equipment at night and reuse it before storing the energy generated by heat. It is assumed that the opening of the data center will entail the emergence of 25 workplaces. As noted by Li Jian-feng, Managing Director of Google Taiwan, in the future, the data center should become a hub for cloud technologies and play the role of a link in the path of traffic to the Asian region.

1997: First Google Server

The case of the first Google server was made from Lego design parts, as Brin and Page lacked money. This equipment was housed on the Stanford campus. At first, the search engine was located at google.stanford.edu, and on September 15, 1997, the domain was registered google.com.

First Google Server

See also

• Alternative power (Russia and the World)

Notes