Friday, May 05, 2006

Google's servers full - CEO says it's a crisis

I came across a curious quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that suggests Google is running out of server room and that this is a "crisis". Here's the quote, from the International Herald Tribune:

"Google continued to make substantial capital investments, mainly in computer servers, networking equipment and its data centers. It spent $345 million on such items in the first quarter, more than double the level of last year. Yahoo, its closest rival, spent $142 million on capital expenses in the first quarter.
Referring to the sheer volume of Web site information, video and e-mail that Google's servers hold, Schmidt said: "Those machines are full. We have a huge machine crisis."

I'm sure that Google's hardware costs must be huge, but I must say I'm surprised to hear the situation described as critical!