Take a peek inside Google's secretive data centres

Google Inc opened two data centres in Asia to cater to the world's fastest growing consumer technology markets.

One of the centres is located at industrial park at Changhua in central Taiwan.

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are all popular with global tech companies because they boast well-established privacy laws, reliable power and fibre broadband infrastructure, and skilled workforces, all essential to operating data centres, says a Reuters report.

A data centre is a facility used for housing a large number of computers that store and serve vast amounts of data, making search results and other services available to millions of users around the clock.

Click NEXT to see Google's amazing data centre at Taiwan and the people who run the high-tech data centres across the world...

Google Inc said it will double its planned investment to $600 million for its data centre in Taiwan to cater to the world's fastest growing technology consumer markets.

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It is one of Asia’s most efficient and environmentally friendly data centers. 

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A unique feature is the use of a night time cooling and thermal energy storage system.

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The system works by cooling water at night, when temperatures are cooler, storing the cooled water in large insulated tanks where it retains it’s temperature before being pumped throughout the facility to cool the servers during the day, says Google.

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A team of over 60 full time employees keeps the site running, alongwith part-time and full-time contractors, from computer technicians to electrical and mechanical engineers to caterers.

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A cooling water storage facility is seen during the media tour in the Google data centre in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, central Taiwan.

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A cafeteria is seen during a media tour in the Google data centre in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, central Taiwan.

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Different generations of server machines are displayed during the media tour in the Google data centre in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park.

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Joe Kava, Google's vice president of data centres, demonstrates the iris check at a security gate during a media tour in the Google data centre in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, central Taiwan.

Click NEXT to see the people who run the Google's high tech data centres... 

Tieg Weathers cuts a piece of pipe to patch into a new cooling system.

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Denise Harwood diagnoses an overheated CPU. Some of the world's most efficient servers are located here.

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Mike Barham swaps out a motherboard. When server parts break, they first try to repair them. If that is not possible, it is broken into raw materials (steel, plastic, copper, etc.) and recycle the components.

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Technicians Mounir Ben Moussa and Ray Coss conduct generator maintenance.

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Patrick Davillier does a visual inspection of the water pipes running below the floor.

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Norman Martin makes visual inspections to ensure battery banks are charged and ready to be activated at any time.

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Ash Williams points out: “Working here has shown me how important the infrastructure is, from the location to utilities, weather and most of all, people.”

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Associate Facilities Manager Jeff Hajer burns some wire in a fabrication area at Google's Lenoir center.

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An employee in the Google data centre in Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, central Taiwan.

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Jon Rogers applies a floor-tile-grabber (actual name) to the floor to check the status of pipes underneath.

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Mitch Fleming tightens a valve coupling to ensure we keep seawater from the Gulf of Finland in the appropriate cooling pipes.

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Neal uses special equipment to completely erase all of the data on old servers.

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This control station monitors the building and power with the ability to take calls from the field, validate repair tickets and authorise repairs.

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Roger Harris takes care of the infrastructure "that allows Google to do what it does,” he says.

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Google's Council Bluffs Iowa data center is spread across an area of 115,000 square feet.