Google, Oracle and the heatwaves
The news is that the data centres of Google and Oracle are forced to shut down in London. The reason is the heat waves. The high temperatures in London did not allow cooling systems to work efficiently. In the data centres, there are huge number of computers. The computers when operational generate heat, which has to be cooled down. Computers cannot work in high temperatures. Thus, the data centres have an efficient cooling system that ensures appropriate temperatures for the computers.
As both companies have a global presence and cannot remain shut for long, they have resolved the issue and are functional now.
Cooling issue at Oracle
The American-based database software and technology company, Oracle, faced overheating issue today (21st July 2022) before 16:00 BST. As the UK temperatures shot, a heatwave struck the country, especially in London. The two cooling units of the company broke down as they were being operated above their limits and capacity. As the two units broke down, the temperature inside started rising. Resulting the company to shut down its computers as a protective measure.
Cooling Issue at Google
The Google Cloud data centre is also housed in London. One of the unique features of Google Cloud is that it allows other companies to work on their computers. So you can imagine the workload there. As Britain baked, overheating also hit a Google Cloud data centre located in London.
At 18:00 BST, one of the Google cloud buildings suffered a cooling failure. Thus, as a protective measure, some machines were shut down. Soon, the issue was resolved, affecting a few proportions of their customers.
Is this a surprise from tech giants?
Even though the data centres are designed to work under high heat and the cooling systems are efficient, it is by no doubt a surprise that tech giants saw a system failure. The London heatwaves are alarming this year, but what alarms me is that if Google and Oracle cannot have disaster management, who can? Is this not the time we start investing in green technologies? Technologies and computers that use fewer resources and do not pollute the environment? Are these climatic changes a good sign? Not at all!
