Google Data Centers around the world
datacenters.google
datacenters.google
Like your gcping.com, I originally named mine awsping.com. Then someone on HN informed me that the name is forbidden by AWS's rules, so I renamed it [0].
https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gcping/pull/209
https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/gcping/commit/91c3f8a...
There are a ton of European results in yours that do not appear in the post's site. Is that because those are colocated?
I used to travel installing Optical Networking equipment, there's definitely demand there but it's brutal travel.
You could look into the big 3rd party providers Equinix, Digital Realty, etc, they often have some openings. The main thing to consider is they have some pretty crazy shift schedules. Lots of them 12 hours 3-4 days a week with nights etc.
Data centers don't need very many employees once they are built, many have less than 20 employees.
This is a big part of the reason why they are such a bad long term deal for localities and why giving them tax breaks, etc is just a scam. They add a lot more negative externalities than they help with the local economy.
https://www.wpr.org/news/microsoft-hired-375-people-for-moun...
The Mount Pleasant fairwater campus is ~1.27 square km... That's massive compared to the DC who employ only 20 people
Moreover, from the same article that you linked:
> “These aren’t short term construction jobs,” he said. “These are construction jobs that are going to take place over years and years.”
That's better than a short term-only construction job... And in the meanwhile it's possible that the rest of the local economy might also witness a boost
But once the construction will be complete, those jobs will go.
I think it's possible and likely that, per-square-meter the Mount Pleasant DCs might employ more people than other DCs, but:
- Microsoft wouldn't pay more people to do the same job that fewer could. Maybe compacting the construction of multiple massive DCs grants them some economies of scale that offset the additional costs due to the additional complexity and employment requirements... Or maybe they are building a massive project precisely because that bumps up the employment numbers, making their project more appealing for local authorities. Either way, a DC is a DC. If the employment numbers are different, we should ask ourselves why
- just because hundreds more are planned, doesn't mean that we can trust 100% those numbers will materialise: Oracle claimed force majeure to step away from a $3 billion New Mexico facility... If leases are uncommenced, any company might also be able to easily walk away
> Nobody lives there
Africa has just under 20% of the world's population.
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/new-gc...
Hyderabad and Bengaluru are the biggest Google campuses after MV from publicly available information.
> In January 2007, Swiss media reported that Zürich would become Google's second-largest location worldwide (after its Mountain View headquarters). This was based on Google securing a long-term lease for 11,500 m² of office space in the Hürlimann-Areal, with an option for an additional 4,500 m². The plan was to grow the Zürich headcount from roughly 200 to 500 employees in the first phase, with the new space having capacity for up to 1,600 people. A Google spokesperson at the time confirmed the goal: "Zürich will become Google's largest location outside the USA," surpassing the then-European headquarters in Dublin (which had 800 employees).
> However, Zürich's real-world ranking evolved differently:
> By 2016 (1,800 employees): It was already described as the largest development site outside the United States, but not necessarily the second-largest overall office.
> By 2019 (nearly 4,000 employees): Multiple sources ranked Zürich as the third-largest Google location globally, behind Mountain View and New York.
> Today (5,000+ employees): It remains Google's largest engineering hub outside the US, but offices in New York, Bangalore, Dublin, and London generally have higher total headcounts.
This is a Google owned and operated data centres.
Some gcp cloud regions are just rented floorspace in DCs from equinox etc.
They won't show on here if the latter.
Google broke ground this year on a owned and operated DC near Stockholm but GCP Stockholm right now is third party DC with their own racks etc.
Curious to see if they change that when it comes on line, or if the just add an AZ.
Also easily found potential military targets: power generation, water treatment, hospitals, schools, government buildings, etc.
Odds of data centers being physically attacked at scale are low. Most of the population doesn't care enough, and the vocal minority is under a lot of scrutiny.
You can hide a handful of racks for some boring 2000s hosting. You can't hide a GW-scale AI behemoth.
Transparency is good.
If the US ends up in a similar asymmetric warfare scenario, the location of corporate data centers being known is low on the priority list. Google is assuming a peacetime footing where public transparency and accountability matter.
So is the US.
How many of these would have to get destroyed for them to go out of business?
Before Microsoft made Bing, Google was more secretive about the scale needed to compete, with cloak and dagger code names and secret companies.
… but then when people took taxis to "Jet Stream LLC" or whatever, the driver just goes "oh you mean Google? lol".
The kind of threat who would be able to get past security would also be able to find the DCs.
But “…Google has placed more than 7,500 edge nodes, which are Google servers installed in the networks of Internet service and network providers.” https://web.archive.org/web/20250722030821/https://spectrum....