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IBM, Google Team on an Enterprise Cloud

IBM and Google "are ramping up efforts to jointly dominate what they believe will be the dominant software delivery model in the 21st Century - so called cloud computing," writes InformationWeek. The story is short on specifics, but it appears the two companies are expanding their project to build data centers to power a grid computing initiative for research universities. That effort, announced last October, was slated to start with 400 computers and eventually expand to 4,000 computers. But at yesterday's IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference n Los Angeles, it was clear that the IBM-Google alliance is building something bigger. An excerpt:

IBM and Google plan to exploit their common technological world view and considerable talent to build a worldwide network, or cloud, of servers from which consumers and businesses will tap everything from online soccer schedules to advanced engineering applications.

The IBM-Google cloud will run Linux, use Xen systems virtualization and Apache Hadoop. But whose data centers will house this system? IBM (IBM) has 8 million square feet of data center space, while Google (GOOG) is building huge data centers throughout the country. Is Google's data center operations expertise part of the deal? We shall see.

See additional coverage at News.com and ComputerWorld.

Posted by Rich Miller May 02, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 30, 2008

Google's Schmidt Sees 'Lucrative' Enterprise Play

CNBC has posted a transcript of Maria Bartiromo's interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Near the end of the interview, Schmidt makes some comments about Google's ambitions in the enterprise sector:

Corporate customers have a much higher need for reliability, so we'll sign an agreement that guarantees a certain level of service. But then we charge for it. So that's a case where people are willing to pay for something which is free without the level of reliability. They also need greater security, for all the obvious reasons. And they also need better integration with all of the other services that their companies have. This is a long process. It's not a fast process. But it's very deeply valuable. And those customers we will have for 20 or 30 or 40 years as they build into our model. We like that model. It's an enterprise play. It's a business that I've been in for a long time, and one which will ultimately be very, very lucrative through Google.

Schmidt doesn't sound as though they're in any hurry. Google is clearly thinking long-term, and thinking big. Google watchers will find the entire interview at CNBC.

Posted by Rich Miller April 30, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 24, 2008

Google Domains, and the Clues They Offer

A fair portion of the blogosphere spends its time speculating what Google (GOOG) may do next. We've done it ourselves from time to time. Pingdom has provided Google watchers with plenty of fuel for new theories with its list of the domain names Google has registered. There are some offbeat ones (check out the full list at Pingdom), and some others that suggest future services:

googlebackups.com
googlebroadband.com
googleclusters.com
googlemonitoring.com
googlewebmonitoring.com

Here's one that I found interesting: errorpageassist.com. That sounds a lot like a service to serve ads on 404 pages. Plenty of third-parties are trying to use AdSense to monetize subscriber 404 pages. Might this be a specialized ad service for ISP 404 pages? Or will Google eliminate the middlemen and seek additional ad dollars by running advertising on 404 pages on sites and services hosted on Google servers or using their DNS services?

The other possibility: at $7 a year, domain registrations are cheap enough that virtually any idea merits locking down potential names, including many that may never be used. But which ones? The Google guessing game continues.

Posted by Rich Miller April 24, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 21, 2008

What About Google's Containers?

So far 2008 is living up to its billing as a breakthrough year for containers. The "data center in a box" concept has been embraced by Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Rackable (RACK) and Verari Systems all report strong interest in their container products.

But what about Google (GOOG)? Last October it was revealed that Google had been awarded a patent on a portable data center in a shipping container, confirming a 2005 report from PBS columnist Robert Cringley that the company was building prototypes of container-based data centers in a garage in Mountain View. But is the project still alive?

Posted by Rich Miller April 21, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 17, 2008

Google's Biggest Data Center Investment Yet

Google (GOOG) spent $842 million on its infrastructure in the first quarter of 2008, its largest capital expenditures ever for a single quarter, the company said today. The previous high water mark was $699 million in the second quarter of 2006. The record capex investment reflects the acceleration of Google's data center construction program in 2007. Here's a look at the trend:

1Q 2006: $345 million
2Q 2006: $699 million
3Q 2006: $492 million
4Q 2006: $367 million

1Q 2007: $597 million
2Q 2007: $575 million
3Q 2007: $553 million
4Q 2007: $678 million
1Q 2008: $842 million

The higher capital expenditures are likely due to ongoing construction on the four major data center projects Google announced in the U.S. in 2007, including facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Iowa. Google says its capital expenditures are "related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment."

Posted by Rich Miller April 17, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 16, 2008

Google vs. Microsoft in Data Center Economics

There's been some interesting reaction around the web to the Google Data Center FAQ and Pingdom's wildly popular map of Google's network. Dave Ohara at the Green Data Center Blog asks an interesting question: "Does anyone say 'hey look where Google went, let's follow them?' "

Many state and local governments have passed tax incentives to attract a Google data center, hoping it will convert struggling regions into high-tech hubs. It's part of a trend in which more economic development agencies are pursuing data center projects. There's no question that favorable environments can create data center clusters, a trend seen in many technology corridors. But here's the secret: If you're focused on developing a data center cluster in your area, you should be chasing Microsoft, not Google.

For evidence, look no further than a story published Saturday about Microsoft's data center project in San Antonio, which has triggered a big spike in data center development. A similar boom occurred after Microsoft (MSFT)announced plans to build a data center in Quincy, Washington.

Posted by Rich Miller April 16, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 11, 2008

Mapping Google's Data Centers

Pingdom has adapted some of the information from our Google Data Center FAQ to produce a map of Google data center locations around the globe. It's a fascinating visualization of the company's network of data centers and peering hubs. The map of North America is interesting because network latency is among the criteria for Google's data center site location, as we noted in the FAQ:

Google needs lightning-fast response time for its searches, and prizes fast connections between its data centers. While big pipes can help address this requirement, some observers believe Google carefully spaces its data centers to preserve low latency in connections between facilities.

Do the blank spots in the map indicate areas of future expansion for Google, or simply regions where demand hasn't yet reached critical mass? Or are these "holes" in the map already served by Google data centers that are so secret that no one knows about them? Have a look and decide.

Posted by Rich Miller April 11, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

April 08, 2008

Google App Engine to Power Python Projects

Last night's unveiling of Google App Engine, a developer platform for Python applications, generated lots of coverage. Most of the stories focused on Google's offering as a competitor to Amazon's utility computing platform (S3 and EC2), but some coverage also looked at the technical and strategic details. Here are the highlights from around the web:

Introducing Google App Engine: An overview from Product Manager Paul McDonald on the new Google App Engine Blog. "During this preview period, applications are limited to 500MB of storage, 200M megacycles of CPU per day, and 10GB bandwidth per day," McDonald writes. "We expect most applications will be able to serve around 5 million pageviews per month."

TechCrunch: "Unlike Amazon Web Services’ loosely coupled architecture, which consists of several essentially independent services that can optionally be tied together by developers, Google’s architecture is more unified but less flexible," Michael Arrington writes.

Brady Forrest at O'Reilly Radar: "I like the approach that Google is taking. They have always been clear that they want more people on the web (more pages means more ads served). They are providing the platform for people who want to put up a quick app; the real question is will they stick with it when the app hits the bigtime?"

Posted by Rich Miller April 08, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

March 31, 2008

Is Google Prepping A Cloud Computing Platform?

There was fresh chatter over the weekend that Google may be preparing to launch a cloud computing platform similar to Amazon's EC2 and S3 - and that it might be free. This rumor is being stoked by an oblique post Saturday by Dave Winer, in which a talking pig asks him if he'd like to run Amazon-style services "in Google's cloud." Dave's post suggested the services would be free for bloggers and users "with modest needs," but perhaps not for everyone. Is the talking pig a reference to Pig, the open source architecture from Yahoo for working with large data sets? UPDATE: Dave has more today, looking at why a Google service offering might be free.

As always, such rumors need to be taken with a grain of salt. Microsoft infrastructure architect James Hamilton writes that although this report has made the rounds before, a Google third-party service platform is "a matter of when rather than if." An excerpt:

Why? Mostly because it makes too much sense. The Google infrastructure investment combined with phenomenal scale yields some of the lowest cost compute and storage in the industry. They can sell compute and storage at considerably above their costs and yet still be offering substantial cost reductions to smaller services. That’s if they chose to charge for it.

Microsoft is clearly staying busy on the architecture front as well, as Hamilton and new Microsoft colleague Greg Linden have been contributing some informative blog posts on the topic in recent weeks.

Posted by Rich Miller March 31, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

March 27, 2008

Google Data Center FAQ

Google's data centers are the object of great fascination, and the intrigue about these facilities is only deepened by Google's secrecy about its operations. We've written a lot about Google's facilities, and thought it would be useful to summarize key information in a series of Frequently Asked Questions: The Google Data Center FAQ.

Why is Google so secretive about its data centers?
Google believes its data center operations give it a competitive advantage, and says as little as possible about these facilities. The company believes that details such as the size and power usage of its data centers could be valuable to competitors. To help maintain secrecy, Google typically seeks permits for its data center projects using Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs) that don't mention Google, such as Lapis LLC (North Carolina) or Tetra LLC (Iowa).

How many data centers does Google have?
Nobody knows for sure, and the company isn’t saying. The conventional wisdom is that Google has dozens of data centers. We’re aware of at least 12 significant Google data center installations in the United States, with another three under construction. In Europe, Google is known to have equipment in at least five locations, with new data centers being built in two other venues.

Where are Google’s data centers located?
Google has disclosed the sites of four new facilities announced in 2007, but many of its older data center locations remain under wraps. Much of Google’s data center equipment is housed in the company’s own facilities, but it also continues to lease space in a number of third-party facilities. Much of its third-party data center space is focused around peering centers in major connectivity hubs. Here's our best information about where Google is operating data centers, building new ones, or maintaining equipment for network peering. Facilities we believe to be major data centers are bold-faced.

UNITED STATES

Mountain View, Calif.
Pleasanton, Calif.
San Jose, Calif.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Palo Alto, Calif.
Seattle
Portland, Oregon
The Dalles, Oregon
Chicago
Atlanta, Ga. (two sites)
Reston, Virginia
Ashburn, Va.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Houston, Texas
Miami, Fla.
Lenoir, North Carolina
Goose Creek, South Carolina (Under construction)
Pryor, Oklahoma (Under construction)
Council Bluffs, Iowa (Under construction)

International sites after the jump ...

Posted by Rich Miller March 27, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

March 21, 2008

Will Google Sites KO AdWords Hosting Revenue?

Lew Moorman from Rackspace has a fascinating analysis of Google's relationship with the web hosting industry, as part of a broader look at Google Sites and whether it will help or hurt Google's revenue from hosting. Lew dives into the cost of acquiring a hosting customer using Google AdWords, which is one of the primary ways that web hosts find new accounts (along with affiliate referrals). His conclusion: that Google makes more from hosting-related AdWords keywords than it could make with Google Sites.

Lew's math suggests an interesting possibility: that each hosting signup through AdSense makes more money for Google than it does for the hosting company that winds up with the client. His assumption is that one in 10 AdWords clicks will convert to a sale. At the current pricing of up to $15 a click, Google makes $150 on the 10 clicks required to produce a sale, which could easily be more than the host makes in profit margin during the customer relationship. And Google bears none of the associated expense for resources and support.

"Who would you rather be?," Lew asks. "Google has the ultimate model. They get paid for leads in an auction process and can deliver those leads at super low cost. Why are they making this trade?"

Posted by Rich Miller March 21, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

March 07, 2008

Report: Google, Microsoft Will Bid for Digg

A sale of the social media powerhouse Digg is at hand, according to TechCrunch, which says that both Google and Microsoft are expected to submit bids, with several media companies also in the running. Michael Arrington writes that Google (GOOG) is likely to make on offer of $200 million to $225 million, while Microsoft (MSFT) has been contemplating a lower bid, since much of Digg's revenue comes from an advertising deal with Microsoft. "We may be looking at a bidding war between Microsoft and Google over Digg," Arrington writes.

A sale of Digg would be a major liquidity event for co-founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose. Adelson is well known in the data center community as one of the founders of Equinix (EQIX).

UPDATE: Adelson, writing on the Digg blog, says the TechCrunch report is wrong. "Normally our policy is to not comment about things like this, but this morning’s rumors about a bidding war involving Google and Microsoft have created such a stir we feel compelled to tell you all directly that they are completely inaccurate," Adelson wrote. "Sorry to burst any drama theories, but they aren’t true. We remain focused on improving Digg and rolling out great features."

Posted by Rich Miller March 07, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter

March 06, 2008

Google Seeking Colocation Space

Google is staffing up to acquire existing colocation space and perhaps even entire data centers. This is an interesting development, since the company already has four massive data center construction projects underway. There are several possible explanations for this:

Google (GOOG) is growing so quickly that its own vaunted construction program can't keep pace. This sounds unlikely, but a recent comment by a Google executive suggests it's possible.

Google will buy, rather than build, its data center space as it expands internationally.

A third intriguing possibility: Google believes the credit crunch and economic slowdown will make distressed properties available, and is preparing to be an opportunistic buyer of data center assets. The company established itself in the dot-com bust as a savvy lessor of colo space from motivated sellers.

Let's start with a look at Google's staffing plans. In recent weeks Google (GOOG) has posted a job for a strategic negotiator to acquire colocation space in "conventional data centers," and another for a specialist to negotiate "leases or purchases of data center facilities and/or properties capable of conversion to data center purposes." There are jobs for a data center acquisition program manager, and a specialist in data center power contracts.

Posted by Rich Miller March 06, 2008 | Permalink | Newsletter