Where the Internet Lives

"Where the Internet Lives" is a new podcast about the unseen world of data centers. In this series, we’ll go inside a data center and learn how the machines actually work. We’ll hear about the early days of Google’s first data center designs — and how they set the stage for today’s hyper-scale facilities. We’ll learn about how data centers are becoming a backbone of the clean energy economy. And we’ll explore how quantum computing, the end of Moore’s law, and new uses of the Cloud are changing the way we build the physical internet.

In our first episode, we explore what data centers are – and how they keep the internet going, even when events like COVID-19 trigger historic surges in traffic.

Data centers are some of the most secure buildings on the planet. In this episode, we invite you to step inside and take a tour with one of Google’s top engineers. As we venture into computer systems that connect the world, we meet the people who keep these warehouse-scale facilities running. Plus, a little-known story about the scrappy origins of Google’s first computers.

How do data centers intersect with the communities they call home? What kinds of jobs do they create and what do residents think of having a big computer in their backyard? In this episode, we hear what happens when the industrial economy meets the digital economy in rural Alabama.

 In this episode, we look at the evolution of data center energy use in a world confronting the threat of climate change – and explore promising ideas that could fuel a carbon-free future.

 We’ll cover the mind-boggling “what-if” scenarios that security experts inside data centers prepare for — all to protect user data and keep the internet running. And we'll learn about the multi-layered systems that keep warehouse computers secure.

For fifty years, computer performance has improved exponentially while the cost of computing has plummeted – but this phenomenal “Moore’s Law” trend has begun to slow down. What does this mean for data centers and what lies ahead? In our final episode, we peer into the future of technology – from machine learning to quantum computing – and explore the next chapter in the story of the physical internet.

Where the Internet Lives is back.In our second season, host Stephanie Wong explores data centers alongside the folks who actually design, build, and operate them. We’ll hear stories of people who’ve transformed their careers, overcome obstacles, and found inspiration working in the places where the internet lives.Subscribe to Where the Internet Lives on Google podcasts, Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get your shows.

A hyperscale data center can house hundreds of thousands of servers. All that digital infrastructure requires a vast and intricate set of mechanical systems to keep machines running optimally.Juliana Conroy-Hoey is a mechanical engineer for Google data centers in Europe. She determines how to lay out the pipes and ductwork inside data centers for maximum efficiency and sustainability – the scale of which still gives her a sense of awe.Learn more about building your career at a data center.

People and information are two of the most valuable things inside data centers. Libby Davis helps protect both.Libby manages security at Google's data centers in Iowa. She runs a large team that monitors every movement inside the facilities – from the outer walls, to the inner sanctum where the servers sit. Libby melded her background in law enforcement, engineering, and organizational psychology to secure one of Google’s largest pieces of computing infrastructure: a data center. Learn more about building your career at a data center. 

Modern data centers are like small cities filled with warehouse-scale computers, bundles of cables and pipes, and colossal equipment to keep everything running. Kenny “KP” Philpot is an environmental health and safety program manager at Google's Douglas County data center outside Atlanta. Before running around the floors of data centers, KP was running around the football field, playing for the Detroit Lions. And before playing professional football, he learned hard lessons while growing up on the South Side of Chicago.Today, he helps make sure that vast pieces of data center infrastructure – and the technicians, electricians, and mechanical engineers who manage them – are safe and sound.Learn more about building your career at a data center. 

Data centers aren't just warehouses full of computers. They also contain complex arrangements of power equipment, water treatment facilities, and cooling systems that keep computers operating smoothly around the clock. Understanding how all these pieces fit together requires seeing the details and the big picture at the same time – something that Damian Diaz has done all his life, ever since he was a teenager fixing handheld radios in Cuba. Damian fled Cuba to seek political asylum. His journey brought him across the ocean and desert, and pushed him to the verge of homelessness. Today, he’s a facilities technician at Google’s data center in New Albany, Ohio – where he helps keep internet services up and running worldwide. Learn more about building your career at a data center.