Top 10 Data Center Stories of 2008

Google Data Center FAQ (March 27): Our summary of what's publicly known about Google's data center operations sparked a great deal of interest around the web.  

A Look at Google's Newest Data Center (Nov. 12): What do Google's top-secret data centers look like? Some photos of Google's newest facility in Goose Creek, South Carolina also generated high interest. 

Ships Impounded in Middle East  Cable Cuts (April 13): Busted by the "eye in the sky": Officials used satellite photography to ID several ships believed to be responsible for the undersea cable cuts in the Mediterranean in February.

A Look Inside Wikipedia's Infrastructure (June 24): As a non-profit with one of the world's busiest sites, Wikipedia runs on about 300 servers, most housed in a single data center in Tampa.

Heat Wheel Could Cut Data Center Cooling Bills (Nov. 14): A relatively new approach to data center cooling known as a “heat wheel” is gaining momentum.

Google Planning Offshore Data Barges (Sept. 6): In a startling new take on data center engineering, Google filed a patent for a “water-based data center” that uses the ocean to provide power and cooling. The patent also confirmed Google’s development of a container-based data center.

New From Microsoft: Data Centers in Tents (Sept. 22): Microsoft engineers have run tests in which racks of servers were housed in a tent outdoors, and had no service interruptions. These results were among the factors leading Microsoft to consider a new design featuring a roofless facility.

Data Centers on Cargo Ships? (Jan 8 ): Bay Area startup IDS released plans to build data centers on de-commissioned cargo container ships. Their plans later fell behind schedule as they sought financing for the project. 

Explosion at The Planet Causes Major Outage (June1): An electrical explosion and fire at a Houston data center operated by The Planet knocked 9,000 customer servers offline. The incident caused extensive damage to the facility.

Google: 'The World's Most Efficient Data Centers' (Oct. 1): Google revealed energy efficiency data for six company-built facilities, including a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.21, the lowest number yet published.