Google's Own Private Internet
Search giant is spending hundreds of millions on a core global network to serve up content
September 20, 2005
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is building a network so massive that several service provider specialists believe it could end up with one of the world's largest core transport networks, effectively building its own private Internet.
”This is huge,” says Hunter Newby, chief strategy officer with carrier connection specialist Telx, pointing to several recent indications of the Google network’s scale. “It’s scary. They’re not fooling around.”
Light Reading, which has previously reported on Google's telecom aspirations, has learned that Google is well underway at putting the pieces together (see Headcount: Great Googly Moogly!, Google Backs Powerline Carrier, and Google Talks the Talk). It is accumulating hundreds of thousands of square feet of carrier hotel space that could host giant server farms, buying up fiber, and issuing large RFPs for DWDM and Ethernet-based telecom equipment that could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to multiple sources at carriers and equipment vendors.
By building a core of transport techologies and peering directly to the world's leading incumbent telcos and PTTs, Google could end up securing and controlling distribution of much of the world's Internet traffic, say the sources. Its massive server farms would have a direct link to the backbone.
Google did not return phone calls for this article. In the past, when asked about its telecom networks, the company has declined comment.
One indication of the size of the product is Google’s recent real estate activities. Crains New York Business reported yesterday that Google acquired the rights to 270,000 square feet of space at 111 8th avenue in Manhattan, which is a large telecom interconnection facility. That space is expected to be populated with telecom equipment and server farms running Google's search and other applications such as GoogleTalk (see Google Talks the Talk).
Another service provider operator, speaking under condition of anonymity, says Google's got big plans on the West Coast, where it is negotiating for large amounts of carrier hotel space and hopes to connect to Asia through the largest fiber peering points.