<![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South - Valleywag Comments]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Wow, just caught some of these comments. By now, all realize Google is almost finished building the DC in Goose Creek.
First response I saw questions the need for water for server farm. I will assume that was from a strong computer guy who knows next to nothing about facility requirments - electrical, power, cooling, etc., and possibly less about energy use reduction. W/O going into boring detail, heavy power use servers require lots of cooling - hench chillers - which need to put the heat somewhere - thus the need for water (make-up) and the fact that 200+ employees need adequate water on a daily basis.
Second response is about the Charleston area. Lynwood nailed it about Charleston...we are a high tech area with plenty of infrastructure. Believe it or not we know how to keep Critical Power facilities working during hurricanes. We have the largest Medical facility in the state right on the coastline and managed quite well - due to planning and forethought.
Third, Goose Creek facility is inland by 20 miles. Utility feeds for the DC will be within a few miles of another HUGE electrical user - a Primary aluminum facility names ALCOA. Electrical the system is known to be extremely "stiff". I work for one of the largest Electrical manaufacturers in the world and we specialize in Critical Power - Primary and backup. I can assure you the GOOGLE folks know how to design a very reliable power system.
Finally, I have no idea of what possibly could constitute any thoughts that activities by GOOGLE to build DC's anywhere would be "Stupid" or "evil". Next you'll be thinking the "Secret" STARBUCKS roasting facility being built in South Carolina is part of a plot to take over the world.

rweiner

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> thank you lynwood, im getting my degree in computer engineering as well, going for two years at trident tech and then switching over to Georgia tech for the other two years. after college it would be nice to get a job with google b/c of how fast the Lowcountry has been growing in the last 10 years.

deadpunk21

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> I was born and raised in Charleston, SC. I have a Masters degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and have worked for world class companies like Cadence Design Systems designing and implementing electrical CAD systems used to automate place and route for complex analog integrated circuit cells.

It's unfortunate that I need to preface my comments with a short bio, but there is clearly a strong bias here against South Carolina and its people in general.

Much of SC is rural and involved in farming; that is unquestionably true. In terms of high tech activities, I would very much like to see the area become more "developed". There are many educated and talented people here (in spite of what the media and our elected officials have lead you to believe) who would love the opportunity to work on something other than DoD and DARPA projects.

Regarding hurricanes, I lived in Charleston during the recovery from Hugo. Hugo you may recall hit Charleston in 1989 as a strong Cat 4. Obviously it did substantial damage to the coastal areas. However, many high priority facilities (such as the airport) had reliable power back up in less than a week. Only a small number of homes were without power for a month.

We have not had a powerful hurricane hit the Charleston area since. We have a high tech company here called Automated Trading Desk (http://www.atdesk.com) with a hardened facility designed to not only survive a Cat 5, but to keep working during and after the hurricane with no down time.

Regarding people, sure folks around here were busy putting their lives back in order after Hugo. But they went back to work too. The company for which I worked at the time (http://www.scra.org) had power back up 3 days after Hugo and had most of its people back on the job a week later.

Keep in mind that other areas of the country are not immune to nature's energetic tantrums. Google's headquarters is located in Mountain View CA, which is at considerable risk from earthquakes. Should they have not located a facility in that area because an earthquake might damage their building? Perhaps they built their facility to withstand a strong earthquake? The same kind of approach can be taken to mitigate most of the threat posed by hurricanes.

Also, as catastrophic events go, hurricanes are really pretty tame (unless you're foolish enough to live in an area known to be well below sea level). They can be watched and evaluated for days, sometimes weeks, before they hit, providing time to prepare and evacuate. The same cannot be said for earthquakes, tornados, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, blizzards, flash floods, forest fires, etc. Yes, there is some degree of early warning for these, but such predictions are not as accurate and/or timely as those for hurricanes in most cases.

The main point here is that you cannot escape natural disasters; you can only choose the type of natural disaster that you want to deal with most often. Here we rarely have to deal with natural disasters other than hurricanes, and we only have to deal with a destructive hurricane once every 20 years or so.

I certainly hope Google builds a facility here, and I really hope it's more than just a server farm. There's no reason to not do serious software engineering here; there's plenty of talent to tap.

Lynwood Hines

hines1957

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Cat5 cane wouldn't hurt a DC? Are you nuts? So let's just imagine that they have enough diesel stockpiled to last a month. Even then, they would need people to work in the DC and a stable network of delivery for spare parts. You wouldn't have either of those in the case of a storm. Employees would be busy taking care of their homes and relatives. The last place thing that they would think of would be work. Getting diesel and spare parts deliveries would be more than a little difficult.

You could put a DC there, but it doesn't make much sense. Unless some Google exec just bought a nice place in Charleston and wants to write off his vacationing. That's why MSN put a DC in rural Virginia...

fatbastard

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Water is used for the AC units in large datacenters.

Also, I doubt even a cat 5 hurricane would do much to a hardened facility with ample back up capabilities. They may have become less unevil but they are not idiots.

4inch

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Google is also building a huge server farm in The Dalles, Oregon, another under-developed area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_02

jcastle

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Sure, Google is going to locate a server farm on the coast of a hurricane prone state. Oh wait, they're dotcommers, they might actually do something that stupid. Oh, how I wish I had bought puts at $505...

Sfbayman

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> We're supposed to care about this why?

tokemak

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Wait, Google has a Chapel Hill office? WTF, where do I submit my resume? First round of drinks at Bub's then off to He's Not!

What does the Chapel Hill office do?

fatbastard

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> I'm from the area, so I can safely say that Goose Creek, nor the Charleston metro area, are in no way a "highly underdeveloped area."

Do your homework before making stupid comments like that.

SC is very favorable to hi-tech and the state government has been trying to entice companies such as Google and MS into the state. Charleston is a major world trade hub, and by including information technologies into the mix would only elevate the area's role in offline and online routing.

samharrelson

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> I'd guess that this is either part of google not being evil and trying to undertake a development project in a highly underdeveloped area (hence the questions about utilities such as water and electricity), or it's google being evil and working on some kind of secret government project, most of which take place in the south or the deserts of the southwest.

My guess is that it's the cheapest location for a hub for google's dark fiber network due to the fact that a lot of fiber runs up and down the eastern coast and it's a good place to start a transatlantic link.

jaggedlittlehelper

]]> <![CDATA[A secret facility deep in the South]]> Water? For a server farm?

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