I'm very suprised that they keep some secret, custom gear in a semi-public shared data center. What exactly prevents no-googlers from wearing their own headlight or using a flash in camera?
"I'm very suprised that they keep some secret, custom gear in a semi-public shared data center. "
Google wants speed above all else which can be delivered best in some cases by shared centers like Equinox's. That sometimes finds itself at odds with Google's desire for secrecy for it's own proprietary advances.
"What exactly prevents no-googlers from wearing their own headlight or using a flash in camera?"
Presumably rules. Ok, so people can break the rules. The amount of information they'll get from looking at a server with a flashlight isn't very much though.
Turning the lights off is like putting piranas in your moat outside your castle. The castle is the enclosure, the moat is the contract and rules you have with the people running the site. The piranas aren't really what's protecting you but they close off some attack vectors.
I'm just saying that it's a very silly protection. It's not like piranhas, more like having a moat full of herrings. For me it's this kind of protection that says "hey! there is something interesting here" but is not really preventing anyone from peeking.
I understand why they use shared centers and that they actually have some kind of custom equipment that should be used there for our pleasure. I think that putting it in a normal-looking rack would be a way better protection.
It's actually better then piranas, it's more like frogs that make a loud noise when someone trys to swim past the moat. If Google's area is not supposed to have lights and lights go on there that's suspicious. Google could have light sensors on/near the servers along with surveillance cams and hell let's throw in a bullhorn for good measure...
"Step away from the server Mr. Ballmer!"
"Drat, foiled again! Meddling teenagers!"
Bullhorn aside, if you have 100K servers that might actually be an efficient way to monitor security for them.
They do --but with the camera & video equipment available today, unless they search people before they enter facilities and confiscate, it's more of a gentleperson's agreement that people will not take surreptitious photos of others' equipment.
I walk in to such facilities carrying a backpack full of assorted gear and two camera-equipped smartphones, nobody ever says a word. They know there's no practical way to enforce the rules.
