Google's hidden secret to making data center's better, an Esprit de Corps commitment to Green Data Centers

Urs Hölzle, SVP Technical Infrastructure has a nice post on its Data Centers are more efficient than ever.

We’ll continue to deploy new technologies and share the lessons we learn in the process, design the most efficient data centers possible, and disclose data on our progress.

I saw this post last week and have had a bit of time to think what is there is more than most can see. There is a pattern of behavior that has been going on. 12 years ago in 2008 I had a chance to chat with Urs and wrote this post on uncloaking its ways of PUE.

What is nice about being Green, being more efficient, saving energy is it pulls together the team. The days of when someone would be wasteful are long gone. Being Green is an Esprit de Corps that unifies the team. The Google Data Center Team.

Definition of esprit de corps

: the common spirit existing in the members of a group and inspiring enthusiasm, devotion, and strong regard for the honor of the group

Getting an organization as large as Google’s data center group to work together for a common goal is a challenge if not impossible goal when you have a typical enterprise organization with multiple fiefdoms competing for their own self interests.

Google’s clear goal has results that the team can be proud of.

Our efforts have yielded promising results: Today, on average, a Google data center is twice as energy efficient as a typical enterprise data center. And compared with five years ago, we now deliver around seven times as much computing power with the same amount of electrical power. 

Without a great esprit de corps Google’s results would be no different than many other enterprises who are noticeably silent.