Google Modular Data Center

Google Modular Data Center

The Google Modular Data Center is a set of shipping containers used by Google to house its servers. They were revealed on April 1, 2009, during the first Google Data Center Efficiency Summit in Mountain View, California. The data centers are rumored to cost $600 million USD each, and use from 50 to 103 megawatts of electricity. They house the computing resources that comprise the Google platform.

 

History

Google was reported in November 2005 to be working on their own shipping container datacenter. Although in January 2007 it was reported that the project had been discontinued, Google's patent on the concept was still pushed through the patent system and was successfully issued in October 2007. In 2009 Google announced that their first container based data center has been in production since 2005.