How Google Is Different from MSN and Yahoo Google’s technology is simultaneously just like other online companies’ technology, and verydifferent. A data center is usually a facility owned and operated by a third party wherecustomers place their servers. The staff of the data center manage the power, air conditioningand routine maintenance. The customer specifies the computers and components. When a datacenter must expand, the staff of the facility may handle virtually all routine chores and maywork with the customer’s engineers for certain more specialized tasks. Before looking at some significant engineering differences between Google and two of itsmajor competitors, review this list of characteristics for a Google data center. 1 Google data centers – now numbering about two dozen, although no one outside Googleknows the exact number or their locations. They come online and automatically, underthe direction of the Google File System, start getting work from other data centers.These facilities, sometimes filled with 10,000 or more Google computers, find oneanother and configure themselves with minimal human intervention. 2 The hardware in a Google data center can be bought at a local computer store. Googleuses the same types of memory, disc drives, fans and power supplies as those in astandard desktop PC . 3 Each Google server comes in a standard case called a pizza box with one importantchange: the plugs and ports are at the front of the box to make access faster and easier. 4 Google racks are assembled for Google to hold servers on their front and back sides.This effectively allows a standard rack, normally holding 40 pizza box servers, to hold80. 5 A Google data center can go from a stack of parts to online operation in as little as 72hours, unlike more typical data centers that can require a week or even a month to getadditional resources online.