Don’t let the information-rich but ultimately sterile presentation fool you. Google’s latest 360-degree video, which offers a virtual tour of the company’s The Dalles, Oregon data center facility, is porn. Okay, so it’s porn for people with incredibly specific tastes. People whose blood starts to boil at the sight of thousands of rack-mounted severs. People who are aroused by a bajillion miles of meticulously organized fiber optic cable. People who get excited at the sight of intense biometric security. But porn nonetheless.
The tour shows off some of the industry’s most advanced data storage and retention hardware, not to mention the security and support systems that are put in place to keep everything running smoothly. In addition to the standard enormous server farms and gigantic cooling systems, there are a few parts of the facility you might not have thought about, like an industrial shredder that destroys failed hard drives and SSDs to avoid the possibility of stolen data.
Google’s tour is available in 360 degrees on the web, and in 4K resolution no less. But in order to really get the most out of that hot, steamy data center action, you need to open the video on your phone and slip it into a Cardboard headset or something compatible. That way you can pretend you’re right there alongside the host as he goes through the security measures, server room, coolant plant, external evaporation cooling towers, and a dedicated power substation. Now excuse me, I’ll be in my bunk.
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