It looks like yet another tech heavyweight, Internet search giant Google, has decided to jump aboard the Open Compute Project bandwagon that was kicked off by Facebook, after showing off their intention with the submission of a 48-volt rack design. Not only that, Google intends to do away with the now aged SNMP communications protocol.
First of all, a little bit of background information – the Open Compute Project (OCP) by Facebook was kicked off half a dozen years ago, where it was an avenue for end-user companies to come together and share their resources in terms of designing one’s very own data center equipment, ensuring it remains as affordable as possible without unnecessary features that tend to increase the final cost when it comes to traditional vendor offerings.
Other huge names in terms of cloud providers who have bought into the idea include Microsoft, and it is now nice to hear that Google, a name behind some of the world’s most advanced data centers, has finally made their commitment concerning the matter. Google’s first contribution? A new rack design which is capable of distributing power to servers at 48 volts, as opposed to the 12 volts which is common in majority of the data centers out there. This will enable Google to accommodate more powerful computing equipment, while being more efficient than the previous 12-volt system as electrical conversion losses are reduced by a whopping 30%.
Google also claims that this technology is already ready for use everywhere, especially since they have deployed thousands of the racks in its own data centers to date.