Google Datacenter Security

Just saw what basically amounts to a marketing video for Google’s Apps customers, discussing some of the features of their datacenters. They’ve put more thought than you’d expect for these facilities, specifically the “sustainability” aspect — which may involve a little bit of greenwashing, but I suppose it’s a start. To recap:

• Physical barriers and perimeter fencing
• 24/7 security (I bet they have free coffee!)
• Access control with badging and biometrics (such as retinal scans)
• Local law enforcement response
• Video monitoring and “video analytics” (motion and object detection, or video tracking)
• Data protection (encryption would have prevented HealthNet’s embarrassing incident, their second in two years)
• File fragmentation, replication and storage (including “sharding” to increase data security)
• Hard drive lifecycle management (how they destroy drives with a crusher and recycle the pieces)
• Fire detection and suppression

Very interesting.

A drive crusher: