Google uncloaks once-secret server | Business Tech. Updated at 4:08 p.m. PDT April 1 with further details about Google's data center efficiency and shipping containers modules and 6:30 a.m. April 2 to correct the time frame of efficiency statistics. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --Google is tight-lipped about its computing operations, but the company for the first time on Wednesday revealed the hardware at the core of its Internet might at a conference here about the increasingly prominent issue of data center efficiency. Most companies buy servers from the likes of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, or Sun Microsystems. Google's big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity.
It may sound geeky, but a number of attendees--the kind of folks who run data centers packed with thousands of servers for a living--were surprised not only by Google's built-in battery approach, but by the fact that the company has kept it secret for years. Why built-in batteries? Technologies, Inc. Single Processor Multi Core Servers. The Planet | Server Matrix. Layered Technologies.