Google’s data centres are colour-coding heaven
Words: Charlie Gardiner-Hill
If you’re the sort of guy who likes to keep his desk in order and his iCalendar colour-coded down to the off-white dentist’s appointment, then these photos of Google’s data centres will leave you incredibly satisfied.
These pipes carry water in and out of Google’s The Dalles, Ore., data center. The blue pipes supply cold water and the red pipes return the warm water back to be cooled.
An overhead view of the cooling pipes at Google’s data centre in Hamina, Finland, the pipes are colour coded to illustrate those that carry seawater and freshwater.
Inside Google’s Council Bluffs, Iowa data center cold air is served up through the floor and the clear plastic barriers help keep the cold air in, while keeping hot air out. The yellow shows wires which are carrying data while the black covers all structural objects.
These pipes send and receive water for cooling Google’s data center in Douglas County, Colorado. The bike is used by workers to get around the vast building and, as you can see, the colour coding is extensive and detailed.
These cables at the Dallas centre in Oregon are, like all cables across every Google data centre, uniformly organised by colour hue.
These pipes hold highly pressurised water in case of a fire. All non-functional parts are painted white, whilst the various important taps and wheels are illustrated in colour.
Server racks at the data center in Mayes County, Oklahoma where each server has four switches connected by a different colored cable. Google keeps the colors the same throughout the data center so it knows which one to replace in case of failure.
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