Yesterday I finally had the chance to take a tour of our main data center. I have been in server rooms before, but never a modern, massive complex so I was really looking forward to it.
It was quite eye opening to see the scale that we operate at. Here were a couple of my surprises:
- It was huge! We're using 100,000 square feet of the total 300,000 square feet.
- To get to any server room you have to get through at least an iris scan and sometimes a vascular one.
- It was quite warm! In my experience (long ago), the server rooms were generally frigid and you couldn't stay in there for too long without preparation. These were at least in the high 70s and possibly mid-80s.
- We probably won't need to expand past our current usage for several years due to advances in server technology. We can densify the racks in lieu of needing new ones.
After the tour, I got to speak to a group of Northern Arizona University students pursuing their CIS and CS degrees. It was rejuvenating to boil down why I love working at Go Daddy so I could explain it to them.
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