It may sound geeky, but a number of attendees--the kind of folks who
run data centers packed with thousands of servers for a living--were
surprised not only by Google's built-in battery approach, but by the
fact that the company has kept it secret for years. Jai said in an
interview that Google has been using the design since 2005 and now is
in its sixth or seventh generation of design.
"It was our Manhattan Project," Jai said of the design.
Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency and now is
sharing more of its experience with the world. With the recession
pressuring operations budgets, environmental concerns waxing, and
energy prices and constraints increasing, the time is ripe for Google
to do more efficiency evangelism, said Urs Hoelzle, Google's vice
president of operations.
Google's "Manhattan Project"
It's actually much more geeky than, say, a nuclear weapon.