Google Goes Underground
Google is working to move its Oregon facility's fiber links underground to prevent them from being a continued casualty of the November hunting season.
By
Ainsley Jones | Sep 21, 2010
Google recently divulged that the fiber optic links to its data center were on the wrong end of target practice for local hunters. Repeated instances have forced the company to move the cables underground, says Geek.com.
Speaking at a conference in Sydney, Australia last week, Google network engineering manager Vijay Gil revealed:
What people do for sport or because they're bored, they try to shoot at the insulators. I have yet to see them actually hit the insulator, but they regularly shoot down the fiber. Every November when hunting season starts invariably we know that the fiber will be shot down, so much so that we are now building an underground path.
The area the fiber runs through required Google to dispatch helicopters, tractors and technicians on skis for the fix. While the move is probably a costly one, the company is building underground pathways for the infrastructure to keep the connections from getting shot, reports Data Center Knowledge.
