Google: What does it use?

[Alan Jackson]

On Thu, 6 May 2004 21:06:59 -0700
Tony Alfrey <tonyalfrey at earthlink.net> wrote:

> On Thursday 06 May 2004 07:11 pm, Michael Hipp wrote:
> > Joel Hammer wrote:
> > > Can someone tell me what Google uses for its server OS? I
> > > think they use linux. If so, the following should be
> > > of interest.
> > >
> > > Note: This editorial says 100,000 servers. I wonder if
> > > they got the decimal place wrong.
> >
> > 100,000 commodity servers running Linux is consistent with everything
> > I've read. They also have a support staff/server ratio that is a
> > fraction of the typical number.
> >
> > But they're fairly secretive about all this.
> 

I googled this result 8-) :

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1202522,00.html

"The computing engine that powers Google is the largest cluster of Linux
servers in the history of the world"

"In fact, there have been rumours in the business for months that the Google
cluster actually has 100,000 servers - which if true means that the company's
technical competence beggars belief."

I virtually know their operations manager, Brian Reid. We have been on mutual
e-mail lists for about 15 years. Brian used to be one of the 7 backbone
managers for NSF-net, and is the creator of the infamous alt newsgroups.  When
he was a manager at DEC, one small project he was in charge of was building the
trading system for the Nasdaq.

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