Canon EOS 5D
ƒ/4
24 mm
1/20
400

…with the hair pulled back, revealing a rack of cheap networked PCs, circa 1999.

Each level has a couple of PC boards slammed in there, partially overlapping. This approach reflects a presumption of rapid obsolescence of cheap hardware, which would not need to be repaired. Several of the PCs never worked, and the system design optimized around multiple computer failures.

Larry and Sergey told me long ago that the beta system used Duplo blocks for the chassis because generic brand plastic blocks were not rigid enough.

We held an event at the Computer History Museum yesterday, and I noticed this new item in the collection. It pre-dates the Google Master Plan.

54 responses to “Google’s First Production Server”

  1. Trajan K Avatar
    Trajan K

    interesting enough that it didn’t catch on fire.

    Reply
  2. Vanita Avatar
    Vanita

    Gawd I love living in these times. If this is seven years ago, what do ten years ahead hold?!

    Reply
  3. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Sweet, a definite piece of history! Wonder how long ‘googling it’ is going to be the vernacular.

    I’m gonna say that the cooling in that room must have been working hard to keep these guys cool. The first ‘blade’ servers, eh? Any guesses on many blades are in Googles machine room(s) as we speak… (I’m going to say 1000+, myself.)

    Reply
  4. Todd Huffman Avatar
    Todd Huffman

    I wonder if they wiped the drives before the put it into the museum… a little late-night ninja-work might be in order!

    Or perhaps a good source for an archeological dig in a few thousand years.

    Reply
  5. JKaljundi Avatar
    JKaljundi

    Google had around 4000 servers back in 2000, 100 thousand in 2004, and nowadays probably 200-300 thousand (although some people say 1 million). They buy them around 10000 units at a time.

    I wonder when they break the 10 million servers (or processors) mark.

    Reply
  6. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    splendid centre-parting!

    Reply
  7. drona Avatar
    drona

    Loved it!

    Such is the rate of change of technology…6yr old boxes are showing up in History Museums. Maybe today’s Google servers will find themselves in the Museum in 2008!? By then one of jurvetson’s Nano-servers will have taken over!…:)

    Reply
  8. Kevan Emmott Avatar
    Kevan Emmott

    I like how they had the front panel switches all wired up and attached to that piece of Plexi or MDF or whatever is being a platform for the Hard Drives…

    Reply
  9. Trajan K Avatar
    Trajan K

    @ drona: LOL ! It’s possible !

    Reply
  10. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Oi! 200 thousand servers! that’s a lot of power usage!! If it’s a million, that’s 100-150 or more Megawatts of power! And that doesn’t even count the power neccessary for cooling, which, what, doubles that? Can one point twenty one giga watts be far behind? (I think I’d cause some heart attacks if I wished a bolt of lightning on them…)

    Reply
  11. JKaljundi Avatar
    JKaljundi

    When Google at last started using AMD processors a few months ago, power consumption was one of important reasons. Already back in december Google engineers said, that power is starting to cost them more than hardware.

    An AMD processor takes less than 100W of power, Intel Xeons could take more than 150W, but that’s just processors.

    Reply
  12. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Hmm, and there are multiple disks on some of the servers, probably, so wow.. maybe more like 400 Watts average per server? 800 Watts with cooling then… Even closer to that magic GigaWatt…

    Reply
  13. madrigar Avatar
    madrigar

    I saw one of their server farms in an Equinix hosting facility in VA not too long ago. Nothing too impressive just walking by the cage. Keep in mind they are most likely spread through several hosting facilities in different geographical areas for redundancy…

    Reply
  14. pfflyerpf Avatar
    pfflyerpf

    (())

    Reply
  15. m3mn0n Avatar
    m3mn0n

    cool

    Reply
  16. it's Benjamin Osborne Avatar
    it’s Benjamin Osborne

    Cool I faved it.:

    Reply
  17. BPinard Avatar
    BPinard

    The "cousin it" of the internet.

    Reply
  18. gags_d_rebel Avatar
    gags_d_rebel

    think big start small.. isnt lyk that..

    Reply
  19. Brajeshwar Avatar
    Brajeshwar

    This inspures one hell of an ultimate geeky feeling.

    Reply
  20. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    From 3K views to 20K in an hour and climbing fast., now 180K… A blog cascade… It’s all part of their plan…

    Google's Master Plan Pity...

    Reply
  21. eugenef Avatar
    eugenef

    um that is the future of Google? time to get rid of the stocks…. sell!

    Free Nature Photography Wallpaper

    Reply
  22. studentvalue Avatar
    studentvalue

    okay what the hell am I supposed to be looking at

    Reply
  23. ehuq Avatar
    ehuq

    awesome

    Reply
  24. philcampbell Avatar
    philcampbell

    Gotta love server stacks. At least when they are working and not going wrong. 🙂

    Reply
  25. dirson Avatar
    dirson

    It was donated to the Computer History Museum by Google in 2004:
    googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/07/racking-up-honor.html

    Reply
  26. Mr DoDo Avatar
    Mr DoDo

    OMG
    really its sooo cool
    i’d like 2 have one server like this in ma room lool

    Reply
  27. OndraSoukup Avatar
    OndraSoukup

    Wow…cluttered one 🙂

    Reply
  28. xouroborus Avatar
    xouroborus

    this was dugg Steve 🙂
    http://www.digg.com/hardware/Picture_of_Google_s_first_server_Aw...

    Reply
  29. Yusuf Motiwala Avatar
    Yusuf Motiwala

    Wow…and how it looks like now?

    Reply
  30. usrid0 Avatar
    usrid0

    HP Procurve switch, old school!

    Reply
  31. @yakobusan Jakob Montrasio Avatar
    @yakobusan Jakob Montrasio

    Cool.

    Reply
  32. Tires 8 Avatar
    Tires 8

    Looks like HR Giger art, lovely machine that.

    Reply
  33. bullseyephoto Avatar
    bullseyephoto

    utterly disappointing!

    Reply
  34. silent beginner Avatar
    silent beginner

    Google’s datacenters are just so amazing. Read: dn.vc/datacenterknowledge

    Reply
  35. Mad Men Art Avatar
    Mad Men Art

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    Reply
  36. amitp Avatar
    amitp

    If you look closely, the labels on the computers start with “jj”. Their first machines started with “a”. These weren’t really the first “production servers”; it’s described as the first “rack” though (meaning the first model, not the first one built).

    Reply
  37. bhupesh.music Avatar
    bhupesh.music

    hi its really gr8, they brought a new things with new invention, thats what they are the youngest billianares, superb.
    http://www.hindisongschords.blogspot.com

    Reply
  38. rosefirerising Avatar
    rosefirerising

    To my health-oriented eye, it looks like an exposed belly beneath a rib cage.

    Reply
  39. skytsui Avatar
    skytsui

    WOW……………………!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  40. biotron Avatar
    biotron

    a most interesting contribution. well said.

    Reply
  41. rosefirerising Avatar
    rosefirerising

    😉 Great picture tho, even if it does look a bit disemboweled. 🙂

    Reply
  42. Jair Ribeiro BR Avatar
    Jair Ribeiro BR

    fantastic!

    Reply
  43. Jair Ribeiro BR Avatar
    Jair Ribeiro BR

    Hi, I’m an admin for a group called The MVP on Flickr, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

    Reply
  44. berta devant Avatar
    berta devant

    uau! I bet they build it up themselves!

    You could think in presenting it to this contest! Imatoria – XXI Century Temples Everyone use and knows google nowadays, and mostly of the internet belongs to it! It could be considered as the internet temple!

    Reply
  45. CuriousJM Avatar
    CuriousJM

    Thank you for sharing this under Creative Commons license.

    I have used it in my Travelogue of an Armchair Traveller as well as in Google Earth Community Forum and have given due credit to you.

    The travelogue is a non-profit ads free blog which I have created as a pastime and I do not derive any monetary benefit from it or from Google Earth Community Forum which is also ads free.

    CuriousJM
    jaymasood-at-yahoo-dot-com

    Reply
  46. Cartradeindia Avatar
    Cartradeindia

    It was the best snap of the history where we only think about the data. But could not understand the hard work which derived the result like this—> Awesome.
    Maruti Suzuki Kizashi

    Reply
  47. McVaio Avatar
    McVaio

    How did this get preserved? I can imagine they gradually replaced parts and threw the old hardware away.

    Reply
  48. Shapeways: Avatar
    Shapeways:

    Sweet, love that they used Duplo bricks to hold it together…

    Reply
  49. tjames221 Avatar
    tjames221

    That is incredible! It’s amazing how far we’ve come since then. I get the same feeling when I look at an Apple II-c. Can I use this photo in my post Social Media Club? Thanks!

    Reply
  50. AlexTurton Avatar
    AlexTurton

    shot. well done
    AlexTurton - View my most interesting photos on Flickriver

    Reply

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