Where the Internet Lives

Latest Episodes:

“Holy Cow, This Is What You Are Building?” Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Building a data center can be as complex as the machines inside. It requires teams of construction experts who are constantly solving football field-sized puzzles – people like Sarah Godbehere.

For Sarah, construction is a family affair. Growing up, she watched her father build schools, car washes, and office buildings.

After getting her engineering degree, Sarah realized that she wanted to work on projects with immediate and tangible outcomes. And that led her to oversee construction of Google's data centers in Northern Virginia. As a program manager, she literally helps build new data centers from the ground up.

Learn more about building your career at a data center.

“A Big Step In Our Journey” Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

Storing photos, taking video calls, or streaming podcasts creates heat. To keep servers cool, many data centers utilize water running through pipes and along server racks.

Teams across Google have been working intensively for more than a decade to use water as responsibly as possible. And in September 2021, Google unveiled a comprehensive plan to replenish 120% of the water it consumes, and improve the quality of water ecosystems in the places where it operates.

Tara Varghese’s job is to make sure Google hits that target.

Water conservation was an important part of Tara’s upbringing from an early age. Today, she leads Google’s corporate water stewardship efforts, and helps shape the company’s strategy for siting data centers and office buildings around the world.

Learn more about building your career at a data center.

“Challenges Are Expected” Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

Mamoudou “D” Diallo's life path has taken him from being a curious youngster in Guinea-Conakry, to an engineering student in Ukraine, to a technology executive in the financial industry, to his role today as a site lead for Google’s data center in New Albany, Ohio.

In that role, he addresses the staffing needs of a data center, which are as complex and diverse as the technology itself. Each facility needs the right mix of server technicians, mechanical engineers, networking experts, security staff, and many other specialists.

Calling on his experiences from a variety of occupations, "D" pulls together the right folks to make things work, building a team that devises simple solutions to complicated challenges inside data centers.

Learn more about building your career at a data center.

“I Never Thought It Would Be Possible” Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

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.

“We Know Who’s Here and Why” Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

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.

“I Feel Like I’ve Seen It All” Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

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.

“Little Pieces of a Big Puzzle” Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

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.

Season 2: More Stories About the People Who Run the Internet Dec 06, 2021

Show notes

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.

Six: The Future Dec 10, 2020

Show notes

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.

Five: What If? Dec 10, 2020

Show notes

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.

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