Hi,

Where does the famous search engine Google.com hosts it's site?
Do they own their own servers, or do they use managed hosting? Where are these servers placed, at which facility from which company? And how many servers do they got?
Same goes for sites like Yahoo.com and MSN.com. I am just interested in how these sites get to my computer so fast, especcialy Google (I know this is also becasue of the lack of ads, but still...). And how much does this all cost?

Thank you in advance,

Jacco

Well as you can see below a trace using visualroute shows the network they are on is called Google Inc so I would guess they have their own servers using Qwest as one of their Bandwidth providers.

================================================

Real-time report for www.google.com [216.239.51.100] (90% done)

Analysis: 'www.google.com' was found in 19 hops (TTL=44). It is a HTTP server (running GWS/2.0).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hop | %Loss | IP Address | Node Name | Location | Tzone | ms | Graph | Network |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | | 10.10.10.100 | MY-PC | ... | | | | (private use) |
| 1 | | 10.10.10.1 | - | ... | | 1 | x | (private use) |
| 2 | | 193.203.159.194 | ts551.cwt.esat.net | - | | 30 | x | PostGEM |
| 3 | | 193.203.159.61 | vlan507.rt508.cwt.esat.net | - | | 45 | x-- | PostGEM |
| 4 | | 193.95.132.41 | vlan59.rt507.cwt.esat.net | - | | 39 | x- | IE-ISI-960726 |
| 5 | | 193.95.129.49 | ge4-0.core002.cwt.esat-x.com | ?Dublin, Ireland | * | 31 | x | Esat-X |
| 6 | | 193.95.131.18 | pos1-0.br002.ldn.esat.net | - | | 42 | x- | IE-ISI-960726 |
| 7 | | 195.66.225.69 | ibr02-g2-0.linx01.exodus.net | London, UK | * | 49 | x- | London Internet exchange (LINX) |
| 8 | | 64.14.178.41 | bbr01-p2-0.lndn01.exodus.net | London, UK | * | 101 | -x- | Exodus Communications Inc. |
| 9 | | 209.185.249.133 | bbr02-p1-3.whkn01.exodus.net | Weehawkin, NJ, USA | -05:00 | 119 | x | Exodus Commnications Inc. |
| 10 | | 216.32.132.193 | bbr01-p1-0.stng02.exodus.net | Sterling, VA, USA | -05:00 | 118 | x | Exodus Commnications Inc. |
| 11 | | 216.109.66.18 | dcr02-g6-0.stng02.exodus.net | Sterling, VA, USA | -05:00 | 118 | x | Exodus Communications Inc. DC-3 |
| 12 | | 216.109.66.99 | csr11-ve242.stng02.exodus.net | Sterling, VA, USA | -05:00 | 118 | x | Exodus Communications Inc. DC-3 |
| 13 | 60 | | | | | | | |
| 14 | 50 | | | | | | | |
| 15 | 50 | | | | | | | |
| 16 | | 65.118.39.170 | - | ?Arlington, VA 22202 | | 244 | -x------- | Qwest Communications |
| 17 | 50 | | | | | | | |
| 18 | 50 | | | | | | | |
| 19 | | 216.239.51.100 | www.google.com | ?Mountain View, CA 94043 | | 131 | x-- | Google Inc. |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roundtrip time to www.google.com, average = 131ms, min = 122ms, max = 313ms -- 28-May-02 12:57:14

Originally posted by Blikje
Where are these servers placed, at which facility from which company? And how many servers do they got?

At least 10,000 servers in four data centers.

http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/accel/2001/00991542.html

Where do they get their money? For starters, they charge up to $20K/month for top-level, highlighted position in category searches.

I saw a TV show with the place where google has all/some of their servers. They have thousands of the the suckers. They have their servers in the same facility as Hotmail too, apparently.

???

Last I checked, Hotmail was hosted at Microsoft's datacenter... Along with MSN, the Gaming Zone, and everything else microsoft is monopolizing... Maybe I'm wrong...

- James

Originally posted by zRedDice
???

Last I checked, Hotmail was hosted at Microsoft's datacenter... Along with MSN, the Gaming Zone, and everything else microsoft is monopolizing... Maybe I'm wrong...

- James

Does Microsoft have their own Datacenter only for their sites, or do they have a contract with a datacenter where they host all their sites?

Jacco

Microsoft's web servers are in an exodus datacenter in washington.

Originally posted by zRedDice
???

Last I checked, Hotmail was hosted at Microsoft's datacenter... Along with MSN, the Gaming Zone, and everything else microsoft is monopolizing... Maybe I'm wrong...

- James
On the TV show, I remember them walking around the datacenter with one of the Google founders and he was saying that over there was some of the servers for Hotmail. It was a HUGE complex with many thousands of servers. The TV show was all about Google and this was just a few minutes of them walking around the datacenter. Fascinating stuff really!!! :D

As far as I know Microsoft run their own data center.

http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/bkst_column_28.htm

(10.000 x $99 a month) + (10.000 x $249 setup) = HeadSurfers dream I guess :D

And all that just for one client, what more would a datacenter want? :)

from reading slashdot there is the following information

over 8000 servers
each server has a cpu of 550mhz 2 controler cards and 2 drives

the os is linux, with custom work to the kernel

google has at least 4 datacenters ( do they own or lease the space is another story )

google's objective besides finding the search for you is to get you off there servers fast, less connected time, the more connects per machine they can have.

there are some other interesting things but I can not confirm them as facts.

Mike

Originally posted by Blikje
Hi,

Where does the famous search engine Google.com hosts it's site?
Do they own their own servers, or do they use managed hosting? Where are these servers placed, at which facility from which company? And how many servers do they got?
Same goes for sites like Yahoo.com and MSN.com. I am just interested in how these sites get to my computer so fast, especcialy Google (I know this is also becasue of the lack of ads, but still...). And how much does this all cost?

Thank you in advance,

Jacco

<sarcasm>

I think they use one of those $2.95/month unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth hosts. (Ahem: http://www.agorahosting.com/) I mean, why would you pay more than that for hosting anyways?

</sarcasm>

Seriously, Google runs their own collection of near 10,000 servers running Red Hat Linux and using (gasp!) IDE hard disk drives. All commodity hardware.

Check out this article for a bit more info:

http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/accel/2001/00991542.html

I believe they have at least 4 different data centers scattered here and there, all self managed.

Take care,

Brian

Another good article, a bit dated, but informative:

http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20010427S0010

Take care,

Brian

I know in the datacenter we have a few boxes in they house servers for:

Akamai
Charles Schwab.
Google
IBM
MSN
National Hockey League
Yahoo!

Just to name a few anyways..

(That would be the Equinix datacenters.)

todd weeks, operations manager for microsoft.com looks like he's 12. more like 12 and a half.

but i bet he runs a mean data center.


i'd like to know microsofts connectivity at that data center!

Originally posted by rochen
As far as I know Microsoft run their own data center.

http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/bkst_column_28.htm

Originally posted by skylab
todd weeks, operations manager for microsoft.com looks like he's 12. more like 12 and a half.

but i bet he runs a mean data center.


i'd like to know microsofts connectivity at that data center!



Back in 1997 (ish) they used to post network diagrams of their data center and microsoft.com server architecture as a way of showing the world how great IIS was. I remember reading their feature article touting their first day of 100% availability... :-)

I imagine they have a whole lot more servers now, and I am sure they don't want anyone to see their network diagram either. That's just an invite to hackers.

Take care,

Brian

i bet you get great ping times on quakeIII if you were bored at work at microsoft hq one day. :)

Here are a couple of stats about microshaft


Microsoft Stats (http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/inside.htm)


Here are just a few statistics about our Web site:

Traffic

20 million page views per day
5.5 million users per day
68 million users a month

Content

80 GB of content
2.5 million files total
1.1 million HTML and ASP files
855,000 GIF or JPG image files
About 100 GB of files available for download
Content updated continuously around the clock

Hardware

Four dedicated gigE uplinks provide a total of 4000 MB uplink capacity
Multiple OC48s provide connectivity to the Internet
Runs on Compaq Proliant ML570 and Dell Power Edge 6450 servers with four PIII-Xeon/700 Mhz processors, 1 GB Memory, 120 GB Content Capacity, and 34 GB Log Capacity each

Software

Windows .NET
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0
Microsoft Site Server 3.0 to supply our search catalogs
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Other Microsoft tools and applications, including MS XML, SQL XMLX, MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Connectivity), NLB (Network Load Balancing)

Man I would kill for some pictures of the google server farm

Anyone got any? I have been looking for a while but to no avail have found jack...

hmm thier co-located at abovenet commuications and exodus communications i think

This is an intersting thread. Here is yet another article to shed some light on Googles network!

http://www.internetwk.com/lead/lead060100.htm

But! That's just the Microsoft/MSDN/QB/WindowsUpdate Sites...

Add in MSN, Hotmail, Etc.

and I do know that the Zone has its own set of servers (many many many many)...

:)

Also... Windows .NET isn't finished...

- James

Originally posted by WCSWEB
Here are a couple of stats about microshaft


Microsoft Stats (http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/inside.htm)


Here are just a few statistics about our Web site:

Traffic

20 million page views per day
5.5 million users per day
68 million users a month

Content

80 GB of content
2.5 million files total
1.1 million HTML and ASP files
855,000 GIF or JPG image files
About 100 GB of files available for download
Content updated continuously around the clock

Hardware

Four dedicated gigE uplinks provide a total of 4000 MB uplink capacity
Multiple OC48s provide connectivity to the Internet
Runs on Compaq Proliant ML570 and Dell Power Edge 6450 servers with four PIII-Xeon/700 Mhz processors, 1 GB Memory, 120 GB Content Capacity, and 34 GB Log Capacity each

Software

Windows .NET
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0
Microsoft Site Server 3.0 to supply our search catalogs
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Other Microsoft tools and applications, including MS XML, SQL XMLX, MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Connectivity), NLB (Network Load Balancing) :eek:

Originally posted by WCSWEB
Here are a couple of stats about microshaft


Microsoft Stats (http://www.microsoft.com/backstage/inside.htm)


Here are just a few statistics about our Web site:

Traffic

20 million page views per day
5.5 million users per day
68 million users a month

Content

80 GB of content
2.5 million files total
1.1 million HTML and ASP files
855,000 GIF or JPG image files
About 100 GB of files available for download
Content updated continuously around the clock

Hardware

Four dedicated gigE uplinks provide a total of 4000 MB uplink capacity
Multiple OC48s provide connectivity to the Internet
Runs on Compaq Proliant ML570 and Dell Power Edge 6450 servers with four PIII-Xeon/700 Mhz processors, 1 GB Memory, 120 GB Content Capacity, and 34 GB Log Capacity each

Software

Windows .NET
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0
Microsoft Site Server 3.0 to supply our search catalogs
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Other Microsoft tools and applications, including MS XML, SQL XMLX, MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Connectivity), NLB (Network Load Balancing)

Don't they use anymore linux/apache Webservers? :D

Looking at the current job openings at google also gives one an idea of their operations:

http://www.google.com/jobs/index.html

Google's quickness is pretty much caused by the awesome comperssion and great HTML coding that limits the size of their files. The coders there have really done a great job in putting such a nice looking site together with so little.