Google building datacenter campus on the outskirts of London
- Reference: 1705918508
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/22/google_building_datacenter_campus_on/
- Source link:
The latest datacenter is based on a [1]33 acre site north of London at Waltham Cross, not far from the M25 motorway that encircles the capital city. Google acquired the land in October 2020.
This datacenter campus is understood to be the first in the UK to be owned and operated by Google itself. However, the Chocolate Factory is giving little detail away about its plans for the location, declining to confirm how many datacenter buildings the campus will comprise, how much total floor space it will have, or how much IT infrastructure it will have capacity for.
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A spokesperson told The Register that it’s simply too early to say, as the company has only just started the build. It seems unlikely that any company would start a complex project like a datacenter facility without knowing how much infrastructure they need to fit inside it.
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Construction is expected to last until sometime in 2025 before the bit barn will be made operational, Google said.
The reason for adding this additional DC is increasing demand, Google told us. As use of Google’s services increases, capacity must likewise grow in response. “We are always planning for future capacity needs and we want to be sure that we have options to continue to support the growing demand for our online services."
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When asked why this location, Google told us it invests “where we see the demand for our services. The UK has long been a leading digital economy and is well placed to be a leader in AI.”
Google has operated in the UK for more than 20 years, and the org currently employs upwards of 7,000 people in the country.
“This investment builds upon our St Giles and Kings Cross office developments, our multi-year research collaboration agreement with the University of Cambridge, and the Grace Hopper subsea cable that connects the UK with the United States and Spain,” Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Google’s parent company Alphabet said in a statement.
[6]Amazon plots massive cloud expansion in Japan with $15B investment
[7]Alphabet CEO tells Googlers: More job cuts on the way
[8]Junior techie had leverage, but didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation
[9]Deep Green gets £200M from power supplier to scale waste heat reuse
Porat claimed the development would bring “crucial compute capacity to businesses across the UK” while creating construction and technical jobs in the local area.
Google claimed its new facility will be ready for off-site heat recovery, capturing waste heat that can be used to benefit the local community.
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It also aims to have its entire UK operations running from about 90 percent carbon-free energy in 2025, partly thanks to a power purchase agreement with energy company [11]ENGIE for 100 MW of electricity generated by the Moray West wind farm in Scotland. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Za5K3cPRXf4mTLB9h6uQ2wAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/21/amazon_japan_datacenter/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/18/google_ceo_tell_googlers_more/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/deep_green_gets_200m_from/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Za5K3cPRXf4mTLB9h6uQ2wAAAI0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/24/google_microsoft_renewable_energy/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: C&S
Construction work is going to be very significant, but only until the bit barn is built. Afterwards, you can expect 60 to 150 full-time employees depending on the size of the site, and three times as many vendors ("employees of another company hired by Google but they totally don't work for Google and their contract looks very different").
Why London?
Google claimed its new facility will be ready for off-site heat recovery, capturing waste heat that can be used to benefit the local community.
I wonder if their strategists saw the proximity to-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezywater
and figured that would do for cooling? But curious why AlphaGoo's opted for proximity to London rather than somewhere where power availability might be better/cheaper. AlphaGoo's big enough to run fibre to somewhere North (or even South) and hook into the international cables that land and run into London. The UK is already pretty power constrained in DC-heavy areas like London and Slough anyway.
Planning?
"However, the Chocolate Factory is giving little detail away about its plans for the location, declining to confirm how many datacenter buildings the campus will comprise, how much total floor space it will have, or how much IT infrastructure it will have capacity for."
Presumably there will have been a planning application to the local authority that would answer the first two of these three questions. Unless, like paying tax, planning law is another thing Google is exempt from. If they are hoping to have this in operation next year and given that planning is a slow process, the application must have been put in a while back.
C&S
while creating construction and technical jobs in the local area.
Chewing and spitting.