So why is this a big deal?

First some background for the uninitiated:  ”111 8th,” or 111 8th ave, Manhattan, NY, is one of the biggest office buildings in Manhattan, occupying an entire city block. It is also one of the biggest “carrier hotels” in the east coast.  A “carrier hotel” is an office building that tailors to network providers.  These buildings and data centers are where what make the Internet run: they’re were internet traffic changes hands from one provider to another.  So: why is this a big deal?

Better question: is this a big deal? or business as usual?  In an attempt to help you decide, here’s a bit of discussion on Google gets by buying a carrier hotel. Perhaps it’s better to start with what Google does not get, namely a way to directly affect internet traffic on one of the biggest peering points in the the US.

What google gets is pretty important:  A “campus” in Manhattan, with plenty of room to grow both its staff and its network.  As owner, it also gets priority access to additional capacity, connectivity to other network providers, and connectivity to building facilities such as electricity and cooling.  Of course, as owner, Google also has the ability to prioritize which other tenants get their requested access to these building facilities.  But that wood be evil.

Lastly, Google gets a pretty neat building.  Built in 1932 to house the Port Authority of NY and NJ, the building has 15 foot ceilings throughout, great views, and plenty of load capacity.  It is the 3rd biggest building in Manhattan.  It includes elevators that can fit entire semi trucks.

So: room enough to expand its staff, all the bandwidth it needs, and a cool building to boot.  What else could Google want?

Tags: Data center, Google

This entry was posted on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 3:35 pm and is filed under It's Just Business, Web News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.