[nycbug-talk] 111 8th Acquired by Google

[Bjorn Nelson]

On 12/3/2010 11:22 AM, Francisco Reyes wrote:
> George Rosamond writes:
>
>> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/12/03/wsj-google-has-bought-111-8th-avenue/ 
>>
>
>> From reading the article it seems Google just wanted "well connected" 
>> office 
> space. Because of electricity prices it seems unlikely they would 
> build up their server farm in there. Hell of an expensive way to build 
> up office space. :-)

Form what I remember of this place, there are tons of various vendor 
cages with servers in them on at least a couple of the floors.  So this 
purchase not only gives them the above but also close proximity to their 
customers and possible competitors.  When your favorite website's 
sysadmin has to head in to the cage to fix a server, they will be able 
to stop by a google office where they can demo them a new infrastructure 
tool.  It's along the lines of one of Machiavelli's suggestions, to move 
your kingdom to the nation you just conquered if you want to convert it 
to your own.

That or they have a patent for a massively distributed broom handle and 
they want to rule the world with a low cost noc reboot service.

-Bjorn