Google Data Center Security, an Overview

While using Google, have you ever thought where this search engine giant store information and data? Google process more than one billion search requests and to store and process data the company runs more than one million servers in data centers all over the world. There is wide range of productivity software offered by Google. These include Gmail email service, social networking tools, and Google Buzz as well as desktop products such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Google Talk instant messaging application, and the Picasa photo organization and editing software.

As a user, it is quite legitimate to ask how secure your data is while using any of the Google products. You may opt for PC security support from an online technical support provider to secure your computer but what about your online data security. In this article we will discuss about Google data center security. Data security is given utmost importance by Google and it is quite evident from its security arrangements and executions.

To secure data centers, Google employs physical barriers and perimeter fencing and round the clock security. There is access control with badging and biometric identification. To enhance security, there is video monitoring system along with video analytics. Data protection, file fragmentation, replication and storage, etc. are also there.

Google recently released a video where it has given some glimpses of its data center security. The security could be termed as robust. The video shows that Google's data center is surrounded by metal security fencing which is complemented by manned guarding. There is also additional protection in the form of CCTV to boost security.

Once you are beyond the perimeter line, the security procedures become virtual and the employees need to enter a Google ID badge as well as retinal scan to gain entry. To secure data like email Google does not follow a traditional file system. It employs a difficult to decipher format. And the most important thing is that data is dispersed across diverse physical and logical volumes for redundancy and expedient access. It is not possible to gain physical access to servers. For accessing to production systems, the employee needs to have permission security personnel using encrypted SSH (secure shell).

To provide higher level of security and reliability as compared to traditional single tenant architecture, specialized knowledge of the data structures and Google's proprietary distributed architecture is built. To render highest level of security, user's data is dispersed across several anonymous servers, clusters, and data centers