A Glimpse Inside One of Google's Data Fortresses (Video)

Ever been inside a Google data center? Me neither. Getting inside one is pretty rare for the non-Googler crowd, and even then they don’t let just any Googler in there.

To coincide with Earth Day, which apparently was today, Google decided to give a little peek inside its data center in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. Google would like you to know that its data centers are very energy efficient, as you’ll learn toward the end of this segment.

Google probably also wants to take advantage of the fact that it scored higher that Apple on the Greenpeace Dirty Data report because its facilities rely less on coal-generated power than those of Apple, Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, IBM or Twitter. But the environmental stuff is saved for the end.

And if this isn’t enough data center fun, you might have missed my tour of the Lucasfilm data center last month, the one that when I last saw it, was actively cranking on the bits behind all the special effects for the summer blockbuster movies. Hey, Memorial Day is about five weeks away!

The bulk of the video focuses more on how Google protects data belonging to its customers with multiple layers of physical security (hint: don’t even think of trying to sneak in), and destroying hard drives when they wear out. After watching it twice, what I really want to know is this: Where can I get myself one of those crushers?

(Fort Knox Image via Wikimedia Commons)