Google's PUE

Wed Oct 1 17:52:54 UTC 2008

[#include: boiler-plate apology for operational content]

Google has released its PUE numbers:

  <http://www.google.com/corporate/datacenters/measuring.html>

There is a nice explanation of this, including a graph showing why DC  
efficiency is more important than machine efficiency (on the second  
page) at this link:

  <http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/google-the-worlds-most-efficient-data-centers/ 
 >

I think GOOG deserves a hearty "well done" for getting a whole DC  
under 1.2 PUE for a whole year.  (Actually, I think they deserve a  
"HOLY @#$@, NO @*&@#-ing WAY!!!")

Personally, I think only a self-owned DC could get that low.  A  
general purpose DC would have too many inefficiencies since someone  
like Equinix must have randomly sized cages, routers and servers,  
custom-built suites, etc.  By owning both sides, GOOG gets a boost.   
But it's still frickin' amazing, IMHO.

For their next miracle, I expect GOOG to capture the waste heat from  
all their servers and co-gen more electricity to pump back into the  
servers. :-)

-- 
TTFN,
patrick