Google Datacenters Locations and Infrastructure

Google operates over 150 data centers across the globe, with locations in more than 40 countries.

These data centers are strategically located to ensure low latency and high performance for Google's services.

Google's data centers are built with a focus on energy efficiency, using a combination of renewable energy sources and advanced cooling systems to minimize their carbon footprint.

Google's data centers are designed to be highly resilient, with multiple layers of redundancy and fail-safe systems to ensure that services remain available even in the event of a power outage or equipment failure.

Google has a significant presence in various parts of the world, with data centers located across four continents: North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Google has a total of 21 data center locations, spread across these four continents. These locations are thoroughly detailed below.

Google has data centers in the following locations in Europe: Dublin, Ireland; Eemshaven, Netherlands; Fredericia, Denmark; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium.

Some notable data center locations in the United States include Berkeley County, South Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Georgia; Henderson, Nevada; Lenoir, North Carolina; Jackson County, Alabama; Loudoun County, Virginia; Mayes County, Oklahoma; Montgomery County, Tennessee; Midlothian, Texas; New Albany, Ohio; Papillion, Nebraska; and The Dalles, Oregon.

Google Cloud's regions and zones are physical locations where the company clusters data centers around the world, with a total of 49 regions and 148 availability zones.

Google has data centers located on four continents: North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. These continents are home to a total of 21 Google data center locations.

Google has a significant presence in Europe, with data centers located in Dublin, Ireland; Eemshaven, Netherlands; Fredericia, Denmark; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium.

In North America, Google has a large number of data centers across the United States. Some of the locations include Berkeley County, South Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Georgia; Henderson, Nevada; and Lenoir, North Carolina.

Google's data center locations are carefully selected to ensure that they are close to large population clusters, which helps to reduce latency and improve the overall user experience.

Here is a list of some of the data center locations in the United States:

Google's data center locations are strategically chosen to ensure that they are safe from natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods.

Google has experimented with floating data centers along the coasts of California and Maine. These massive structures, 250 feet long and 72 feet wide, were secretly built by Google in 2013.

The floating data centers were disguised as "interactive learning centers", where people could learn about new technology. However, this claim was likely a cover for the true purpose of the barges.

Google halted work on the barges in late 2013 and began selling them off in 2014. This marked the end of Google's floating data center project.

Google acquired a patent for an in-ocean data center cooling technology in 2009, which was likely used for the floating data centers. This innovative technology allowed the data centers to operate efficiently in the ocean environment.

Google's indexing system is a massive data structure known as an inverted index, which allows for efficient retrieval of documents by query word.

The index is partitioned into many pieces called shards, each containing a subset of document IDs. This helps distribute the load across multiple servers.

Each shard is replicated onto multiple servers to ensure high availability and redundancy. Initially, the index was stored on hard disk drives, a traditional approach in information retrieval systems.

However, as query volume increased, Google found it necessary to increase the number of replicas and servers to keep up. Eventually, they had enough servers to store a copy of the whole index in main memory.

This switch to an in-memory index system in early 2001 significantly improved throughput and reduced latency. The system was later refined with the introduction of Caffeine in June 2010.

Caffeine allows for continuous crawling and updating of the search index, eliminating the need for batch updates. This incremental approach ensures a fresher and more accurate search experience for users.

Google's original hardware setup, dating back to 1998, was quite impressive for its time. It included a Sun Microsystems Ultra II with dual 200 MHz processors and 256 MB of RAM, which served as the main machine for the original Backrub system.

The company's early servers were donated by Intel, with two 300 MHz dual Pentium II servers featuring 512 MB of RAM and 10 x 9 GB hard drives between them. They were used to run the main search.

Google's hardware has evolved significantly since then, with a shift towards customized Debian Linux systems. As of 2014, their servers consisted of custom-made open-top systems containing two processors (each with several cores), a considerable amount of RAM, and at least two SATA hard disk drives.

Google's original hardware setup was impressive, considering it was in 1998. They had a Sun Microsystems Ultra II with dual 200 MHz processors and 256 MB of RAM, which served as the main machine for the original Backrub system.

This machine was later joined by two 300 MHz dual Pentium II servers donated by Intel, each with 512 MB of RAM and 10 × 9 GB hard drives between them. These servers ran the main search.

The F50 IBM RS/6000 donated by IBM was a beast, with 4 processors, 512 MB of memory, and 8 × 9 GB hard disk drives. It was a significant addition to the original hardware setup.

In total, Google had five machines: the Sun Ultra II, two Pentium II servers, the F50 IBM RS/6000, a homemade disk box with 10 × 9 GB SCSI hard disk drives, and an SSD disk expansion box with 8 × 9 GB hard disk drives.

Google's production hardware is quite fascinating. As of 2014, they used a heavily customized version of Debian Linux.

This customization goal is to purchase CPU generations that offer the best performance per dollar, not absolute performance. The exact method of measurement is unclear, but it likely incorporates running costs of the entire server.

Servers as of 2009-2010 consisted of custom-made open-top systems containing two processors (each with several cores), a considerable amount of RAM, and at least two SATA hard disk drives. Each server had a novel 12-volt battery to reduce costs and improve power efficiency.

The combined processing power of these servers might have reached from 20 to 100 petaflops in 2008. Google's global data center operation electrical power ranges between 500 and 681 megawatts.

Google's datacenter network is a complex system that requires robust infrastructure to ensure efficient data transfer and security. Cloud Load Balancing helps distribute network traffic across multiple servers to prevent overload and improve responsiveness.

To maintain network security, Google offers Cloud Armor, a service that protects against cyber threats and DDoS attacks. Cloud NGFW* also provides advanced firewall capabilities to safeguard datacenter networks.

Google's datacenter network is built with flexibility in mind, with services like Virtual Private Cloud and Private Service Connect allowing for secure and scalable connectivity between resources. These services enable businesses to create a robust and secure network infrastructure that meets their specific needs.

Google's network is a complex beast, and understanding its topology is essential to grasping how it works. Google's network is the third largest ISP, with direct connections to as many ISPs as possible at the lowest possible cost.

Google has a very open peering policy, which allows its network to be accessed from 67 public exchange points and 69 different locations across the world. This public network is used to distribute content to Google users.

As of May 2012, Google had 882 Gbit/s of public connectivity, not counting private peering agreements with the largest ISPs. This is a staggering amount of bandwidth, and it's a testament to Google's massive scale.

Google's private network is a secret, but we do know that it uses custom-built high-radix switch-routers with a capacity of 128 × 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. These routers are connected to DWDM devices to interconnect data centers and point of presences via dark fiber.

Google's datacenter network starts at the rack level, where custom-made 19-inch racks contain 40 to 80 servers. Each rack has an Ethernet switch, and servers are connected via a 1 Gbit/s Ethernet link to the top of rack switch.

Google's network uses a modified Clos topology to support fault tolerance and accommodate low-radix switches. This allows the network to scale in the terabit per second range.

Google's custom switch-routers are connected to DWDM devices, which interconnect data centers and point of presences via dark fiber. This setup enables Google to distribute content to users and crawl the internet to build its search indexes.

Google's network is designed to be highly redundant, with no less than two routers per datacenter. This ensures that the network can continue to function even if one router fails.

In the world of datacenter networking, having a robust and scalable infrastructure is crucial for businesses to stay ahead of the competition. Cloud Load Balancing is a key component of this infrastructure, allowing you to distribute traffic across multiple servers to improve responsiveness and reliability.

Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) is another essential tool, caching frequently accessed content at edge locations to reduce latency and improve user experience.

Cloud Interconnect enables you to create a dedicated, high-bandwidth connection between your datacenter and Google Cloud Platform, perfect for applications that require low-latency and high-throughput.

Cloud DNS (Domain Name System) provides a scalable and highly available service for managing domain names and routing traffic to your applications.

Cloud Armor is a powerful DDoS protection service that helps protect your applications from malicious traffic and ensures high availability.

Cloud NGFW (Network Gateway Firewall) offers advanced threat protection and security for your network, while Network Intelligence Center provides real-time visibility and insights into your network traffic.

Traffic Director is a service that helps you manage and optimize your network traffic, ensuring that your applications are always accessible and responsive.

Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) provides a scalable and secure environment for deploying your applications, with features like network isolation and firewalls.

Cloud NAT (Network Address Translation) allows you to translate private IP addresses to public IP addresses, enabling secure and scalable internet access for your applications.

Here are some key networking services in Google Cloud Platform:

Google's datacenter software is a custom-built solution that plays a crucial role in powering their online services. The company has developed a range of software tools to manage its massive infrastructure.

Google Web Server (GWS) is a custom Linux-based Web server that the company uses for its online services. It's designed to handle the high traffic and scalability demands of Google's applications.

The company uses a variety of storage systems, including the Chubby lock service and MapReduce, which is a programming language used in conjunction with Sawzall. This combination enables efficient data processing and management.

Here are some key data storage abstractions used by Google:

Google's software stack is a custom-built collection of tools and languages that power their online services. This includes C++, Java, Python, and Go, which are favored over other programming languages.

The back end of Gmail is written in Java, while the back end of Google Search is written in C++. These languages are widely used within the company.

Google has developed several abstractions for storing data, including Protocol Buffers, a binary serialization format that is widely used within the company. It's a key part of their data storage infrastructure.

Protocol Buffers are used for storing most of Google's data, and it's also used as one of the building blocks of Bigtable.

Google's software stack also includes the Google Web Server (GWS), a custom Linux-based Web server that is used for their online services. The storage systems used by Google include Chubby lock service, MapReduce, and Sawzall programming language.

Here are some of the key software components used by Google:

Most operations in datacenter software are read-only, which simplifies the overall system.

To ensure consistency, queries are redirected to other servers when an update is required. This approach makes it easier to manage data consistency across the system.

Queries are divided into sub-queries, which can be sent to different servers in parallel, reducing latency time.

This design allows for efficient processing of complex queries, making the system more responsive.

To minimize the impact of hardware failure, datacenter software is designed to be fault-tolerant.

Google's data centers have been at the center of a security controversy in the past. In 2013, the US National Security Agency intercepted communications between Google's data centers as part of a program named MUSCULAR.

This wiretapping was made possible because Google did not encrypt data passed inside its own network at the time. Google rectified this issue by beginning to encrypt data sent between data centers in 2013.

Google Data Center Security: 6 Layers Deep is a video that provides insight into the security measures Google has in place.

Google's data centers are designed to be energy-efficient. Google's most efficient data center runs at 35 °C (95 °F) using only fresh air cooling, requiring no electrically powered air conditioning.

In 2016, Google announced a commitment to purchasing enough renewable energy to match 100% of the energy usage of its data centers and offices. This commitment will make Google "the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy".

Google's datacenter projects are a key part of their infrastructure. They have built datacenters in over 20 locations across the globe.

Google's datacenters are highly efficient, using a combination of renewable energy and advanced cooling systems to minimize their environmental impact. They aim to power 100% of their datacenters with renewable energy by 2025.

Google's datacenters are designed to be highly scalable, with modular designs that allow them to easily add or remove servers as needed. This flexibility enables them to quickly adapt to changing demand.

Google's datacenter projects have helped to create jobs and stimulate local economies in the regions where they are located. For example, their datacenter in Hamina, Finland, has created hundreds of jobs in the region.

Google's datacenters are also designed to be highly secure, with multiple layers of protection to safeguard user data. They use advanced encryption techniques and strict access controls to prevent unauthorized access.

Google's datacenter projects have also led to innovations in areas such as cooling and power distribution. They have developed new technologies that reduce energy consumption and increase efficiency.

Google's datacenters are designed to be highly efficient, using a combination of renewable energy and advanced cooling systems to minimize their environmental impact.

Google's datacenter infrastructure is a marvel of modern engineering. Google's datacenters are strategically located near the ocean to take advantage of the cooling effect of sea water, which helps reduce the need for air conditioning.

Google's datacenters are built on a massive scale, with some facilities covering over 1 million square feet. This allows them to house thousands of servers and support a vast array of services.

Google's datacenters are designed to be highly efficient, with some facilities using as little as 20 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour. This is achieved through the use of high-efficiency servers, LED lighting, and other energy-saving technologies.

Google's datacenters are also equipped with advanced cooling systems, including evaporative cooling and water-side economization. These systems help reduce the need for air conditioning and lower Google's energy consumption.

Google's datacenters are built to be highly resilient, with multiple power sources and cooling systems in place to ensure that services remain available even in the event of an outage.

Google Cloud has a vast network of datacenter regions and zones spread across the globe. These regions are physical locations where Google clusters its data centers.

In total, Google Cloud operates or is planning 49 regions and 148 availability zones across the United States, Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. This extensive network helps ensure high availability and redundancy for Google Cloud customers.

Some of the regions with the most availability zones include the United States, with 28 zones, and Asia Pacific, with 42 zones. These regions are strategically located in major cities such as London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney.

Here is a breakdown of the regions and zones in each market:

Note that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather a selection of regions to illustrate the diversity and scale of Google Cloud's datacenter network.

Google Cloud operates 9 regions in the United States, with a total of 28 availability zones. Each region is located in a specific market, such as Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

The regions are: Council Bluffs, Iowa; Moncks Corner, South Carolina; Ashburn, Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; The Dalles, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here is a list of the regions in the United States, along with their corresponding codes and zones:

In the Asia Pacific region, Google Cloud operates or plans to operate 14 regions and 42 availability zones. Google Cloud is available or will be opening in markets such as Changhua County, Taiwan and Hong Kong, SAR.

The first Google Cloud data center in South East Asia was opened in Singapore, specifically in Jurong West, and started its services in December 2013.

Google Cloud operates data centers in various regions, including Taiwan (asia-east1), Hong Kong (asia-east2), Tokyo (asia-northeast1), and Osaka (asia-northeast2). Each of these regions has 3 availability zones.

Here is a list of the regions and their corresponding availability zones:

The Middle East and Africa region is home to a growing number of Google Cloud data centers. Google Cloud operates or is planning 5 regions and 15 availability zones in this area.

Tel Aviv is one of the key locations in the Middle East and Africa region, with Google Cloud operating a data center there since 2022. The data center in Tel Aviv, known as me-west1, has 3 zones.

Doha, Qatar is another important location in the region, with Google Cloud opening a data center there in 2023. The data center in Doha, known as me-central1, also has 3 zones.

Dammam, Saudi Arabia is yet another location in the region with a Google Cloud data center, which opened in 2023. The data center in Dammam, known as me-central2, also has 3 zones.

Johannesburg, South Africa is a key location in the region, with Google Cloud opening a data center there in 2024. The data center in Johannesburg, known as africa-south1, also has 3 zones.

Here's a summary of the regions and zones in the Middle East and Africa:

Europe is home to a significant number of Google data centers. There are five Google data centers located in the continent of Europe. Google Cloud operates or is planning 16 regions and 48 availability zones in Europe.

Some of the markets where Google Cloud is available or will be opening include Warsaw, Poland; Hamina, Finland; Madrid, Spain; St. Ghislain, Belgium; London, United Kingdom; Frankfurt, Germany; Eemshaven, Netherlands; Zürich, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Berlin (including Brandenburg), Germany; Turin, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Athens, Greece; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm, Sweden.

Here are the regions where Google Cloud operates data centers in Europe:

Google Cloud operates 49 regions and 148 availability zones across the globe, with a total of 28 regions and 28 zones in the United States alone. These regions are physical locations where Google Cloud clusters data centers around the world.

Google Cloud's regions are divided into several markets, including the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Each region has multiple availability zones, which are designed to protect against unexpected failures.

In the United States, Google Cloud operates data centers in regions such as Iowa (us-central1), South Carolina (us-east1), and Northern Virginia (us-east4). These regions have a total of 28 zones, with some regions having as few as 3 zones and others having up to 4.

Here's a breakdown of some of the regions and zones in the United States:

In Asia Pacific, Google Cloud operates or is planning 14 regions and 42 availability zones. Specifically, Google Cloud is available or will be opening in the following markets: Changhua County, Taiwan; Hong Kong, SAR; Tokyo, Japan; Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Mumbai, India; Delhi, India; Jurong West, Singapore; Jakarta, Indonesia; Sydney, Australia; Melbourne, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Bangkok, Thailand.

The Asia Pacific region has a total of 42 zones, with some regions having as few as 3 zones and others having up to 3 zones.