Googlenet runs on '900

Google's worldwide data center network spans about 900,000 servers, according to an estimate based on new information the company has deigned to share about its power use.

In a new report from Stanford professor Jonathan Koomey on data center energy usage, Google estimates that it accounts for less than one per cent of the energy consumed across the world's data centers, and Koomey uses this figure to extrapolate Google's worldwide server count. The web giant does not divulge the number of servers used in its network of in broad outline 40 data centers, which stretches from California to Finland to Asia.

Thus, Koomey says, Google's custom built data centers are considerably more efficient than run-of-the mill corporate data centers, even though he indicates that Google's infrastructure is comparable to other "cloud computing" installations. The company is now operating chillerless data centers in Belgium and Finland, with the latter facility cooled solely with water from the Baltic Sea, and it has designed its own servers with built-in batteries that remove the need for a separate UPS.