With defensive measures in place like dual authentication systems, vehicle-access barriers, high-resolution cameras, laser beam intrusion detection systems, biometric iris scanners and electronic access cards, you’d think we were describing a “Supermax” prison, or the U.S. Air Force’s notorious Area 51, or perhaps The United States Bullion Depository located within Fort Knox.

Actually, we’re not. What’s listed above are in fact some of the multi-level security measures employed by Google to protect its prized data centers from unauthorized access. Other measures include metal detectors, perimeter fencing, and what Google calls “circle-lock portals” that are designed to prevent someone from slipping through a door that’s been passed through by someone else in possession of a valid access card. And those who want to enter the actual data center floors themselves, where the servers reside, must pass through a security corridor protected by multi-factor authentication systems.

The vast majority of Google employees will never get that far though, for the company takes data center security so seriously that less than one percent of its employees have authorization to access them.

These measures, considered essential for Google to protect its business, which is currently ranked as the fourth most valuable in the world, were revealed in a new blog post by Google’s vice president of data center operations Joe Kava.

Kava’s post goes beyond the physical protection measures Google has in place to protect its data, which is the true value of its business. He also discusses Google’s “strict end-to-end chain of custody” for data storage, which ensures that the entire life time of each hard disk in its data centers is carefully tracked and monitored, with all data ever stored on it accounted for.

Google also goes to extremes to ensure its data centers are protected against vulnerabilities too. To that end, its servers are stripped of any unnecessary components or features like chipsets, video cards and peripheral connectors. And all of its servers run a hacked and hardened, stripped down version of Linux, with server resources allocated dynamically by computers so only the most minimal of human interaction is required.

Google’s own machine learning technologies also come into play to keep its data centers up and running.

“As you can imagine our data centers are large and complex, with electrical, mechanical and control systems all working together to deliver optimal performance,” Kava wrote. He explained that it’s impossible for human operators to optimize its data centers’ performance, but for computers it’s “fairly trivial” stuff.

Kava’s blog post, comes just a few days after Google gave us a rare glimpse inside one of its data centers in this 360-degree virtual reality tour.

Image credit: Mariamichelle via pixabay