Friday, March 20, 2009

Google's Server Strategy

A colleague and I were having lunch today (sushi!), and we were talking about the concept of IT 'best practices'. While there are a number of items that should be in place in every IT environment (backup, security, etc), we eventually found ourselves talking about cloud computing and Google.

Simply said, cloud computing means placing all your data outside of your firewall and on servers-- most likely virtual servers-- you access via the Internet. That led us to Google, and what he recently learned about Google's server strategy. Here are some pics, early and current... hardly what you'd likely call 'best practices'!



What do you think? It obviously works for them, but would you use a similar server strategy?

2 comments:

Justin Moore said...

As shocking as those pictures can be initially, my brain quickly began to try and calculate the amount of time it would save them everyday by not having to open/close cases to their servers. If you had 100 servers that needed a memory upgrades or a replacement NIC, you've saved HOURS of time in just one day. Multiply that out over a few years and it's big dollars.

So I say kudos to Google for bucking the trend here.

Nick Nicholaou said...

I agree, Justin! It would be as great time saver. That gets amplified when you realize they use consumer-grade components!