Take a Look Inside Google’s Data Centers

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Council Bluffs, Iowa — Hovering above the floor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the scale of the data center begins to take shape. Huge steel beams both support the structure and help distribute power.

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St. Ghislain, Belgium — A sunset illuminates water storage tanks and cooling towers.

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Douglas County, Ga. — These colorful pipes send and receive water for cooling the facility. Also pictured is a G-Bike, the vehicle of choice for team members to get around outside data centers.

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Berkeley County, S.C. — This is a closer view of the backup tapes in the tape library. Each tape has a unique barcode so Google's robotic system can locate the right one.

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Council Bluffs, Iowa — This massive antenna receives signals for the Access Services unit which brings fiber optics to residential homes all over the globe. These antennas are also the primary signal source for hundreds of TV channels that make up Google Fiber's TV service.

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Douglas County, Ga. — Blue LEDs on this row of servers show if everything is running smoothly.

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St. Ghislain, Belgium — "As part of our commitment to keeping our users' data safe, we destroy all failed drives, on site," says Google.

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The Dalles, Ore. — Pipes aren't the only colorful things at Google's data centers. These cables are organized by their specific hue.

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Hamina, Finland — Google's Finnish data center during winter sits by the gulf as it ices over and creates a picturesque view.

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Mayes County, Okla. — A rare look behind the server aisle. Here hundreds of fans funnel hot air from the server racks into a cooling unit to be recirculated. The green lights are the server status LEDs reflecting from the front of the servers.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/10/17/take-a-look-inside-googles-data-centers/#ixzz2AQzkDftJ