Microsoft reveals its MASSIVE data center (Full Tour)

[Music] the view may be generic but this is actually one of my favorite places in the world why well i think it represents the most important infrastructure of the 21st century this is a part of microsoft's columbia data center campuses these house the computers that fuel our lives there are more than 20 buildings each large enough to house two commercial aircraft they fill two million square feet they're spread out over 300 acres but what's really interesting is what's inside it's something that almost no one ever gets to go see but come with me it's covet times i need to wear my mask but i'll show you around well as we walk around first i've just spared you not just a metal detector but what is probably the longest and most substantial security checkpoint you'll ever find on planet earth but what is so interesting to me is what you see here this is just a glimpse of the types of server computers that we find in room after room and building after building on these campuses there are almost half a million of these server computers they store as much data as you would find in more than 50 000 libraries of congress and i think that captures so well how this really is the infrastructure for almost everything that we're engaged in today the way you live your life the way you do your work the way research and development are all moving forward it all relies on this enormous amount of data and this enormous amount of computing power so you just see here so much innovation all connecting together but actually that's not the end of the story come back outside and i'll show you one more really interesting piece these campuses represent not only the most advanced digital infrastructure in the world but some of the most advanced energy infrastructure as well why well first if we ever lose power from the electrical grid we need to keep the computers running there are more than 19 000 battery cells each like the battery under the hood of your car that will do just that and at the same time that that happens these big electrical generators will start operating as well in fact there's more than 140 of these generators on these campuses each of these will power the equivalent of 3 000 homes the good news is with the latest advances in emissions technology they actually give out less emission than a typical lawn mower you might use in your backyard each today runs on diesel fuel in fact there are tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel stored here but not 10 years from now we've said that by the end of this decade each one of these needs to go they'll be replaced by either new generators that run on hydrogen power or new advanced fuel cells and in that you see this extraordinary intersection between digital technology energy technology environmental science and the need for innovation this in so many ways is the physical embodiment of our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more

Channel: CNET Highlights

Views: 228,646

Rating: 4.7104888 out of 5

Keywords: event, livestream, live, 2021, ces, ces 2021, consumer electronics show, tech, tech news, news, electronics, announcements, keynote, presentation, microsoft, microsoft ces, new microsoft, consumer tech, gadgets, technology

Id: 80aK2_iwMOs

Length: 4min 9sec (249 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/rubmahbelly]

I think I saw the rack with my workloads.

[u/UTDoctor]

What a cool video. Breaks up the monotony of folks on this sub talking about certs...

Thanks for posting OP!

[u/NeedsMoreCloud]

I would hardly call this a full tour. I used to manage data centers, so there's a lot more I wanted to see than a few "cables and blinking lights" shots.

[u/thspimpolds]

After covid if you are a big strategic account, you can get tours too. It’s usually coupled with an EBC in Redmond

[u/lzwzli]

Reminds me of the scene in Silicon Valley where they get lost in the data center with rows and rows of identical racks of servers and everything looks exactly the same.

[u/bro-away-]

What are those plastic pieces in each port? Tamper proofing or dust protection?

The craziest part of this video is him saying that the view is generic. It definitely is, but me in the 90s would've thought a video like this was a massive exaggeration or fiction.

[u/matthewf01]

I've worked in plenty of data centers but they are all multi tenant, so every customer gets a rack, cage, cabinet, whatever. Interesting to see a row of gear with no doors, no separation ... But when you think that each device in the rack may be supporting tens, hundreds, or thousands of customers, the fact that that guy stuck his hand in the rack and jostled a bundle of cables kinda gave me a moment of anxiety. Sure the stuff is all HA and redundant but you don't want to go having a failover because some guy gave a tour and decided to shake some cables around...

[u/chandleya]

The camera angles demonstrating a single RJ45, transceiver, and SFP really show why I experience hundreds of VM failures per year.

[u/FourthBit]

Honestly, I am dissapointed. First of all call this short video "full tour" is kind of missleading. Also no recuperation, missing hot and cold aisles looks as very inefficient solution to me.