Networks are a fundamental part of the Google infrastructure. Ask yourself a couple of questions and then you can answer the questions about Googles motivations.<p>1) Is there any switch that does only what you want? Have any of the features you didn't need interfered with your uptime?<p>2) In a 48 port high performance switch which is more expensive? The switch or the cables? Why?<p>So if you 'do the math' the obvious answer sort of pops out.<p>Disclaimer: I worked there and agreed not to discuss any platform technologies until such time as either Google talked about them publicly or they were disclosed by other means not related to me.
Heh, I'm completely baffled why it has Finnish text on it.
From the blurrypic I can make out "Laite on liitettävä suojamaadoituskoskettimella varustettuun pistorasiaan", which basically means "Device must be connected to grounded outlet"
I often hear about Google's custom hardware. Are there any other large tech companies (who are not hardware companies) that build/design their own hardware to run internally?
As I recall, Google has been producing switches [1] for some time now.<p>1: <a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/11/18/google-making-its-own-10gig-switches/" rel="nofollow">http://gigaom.com/2007/11/18/google-making-its-own-10gig-swi...</a>
I love the "Who's online" section at the bottom of the "obscure" networking forum.<p>About 5 members and over 11,000 guests. It doesn't seem very "obscure" at the moment.<p>It's too bad PT Barnum is not alive today to see the thundering herds of the world wide web.
The Wireshark capture showing BOOTP was interesting. I don't live in the networking world anymore, but I thought BOOTP had gone the way of Gopher by now.