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GOOGLE EARTH: FLY ANYWHERE WITHOUT LEAVING THE ROOM
Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. Before Google Earth had the popularity it does today, it was a relatively unknown feature that was offered if you clicked the right links, and the images were stagnant. Teaming with NASA and many of the brilliant minds at Google, Anthony R. Howard was the engineer who assisted with the compute and processor configurations and requirements.
Challenge:
Google.com requires an enormous amount of processing power and uses thousands of servers to run its search engine, without considering Google Earth. Demand for computing strength grows exponentially as users flock to Google each day. This brings up concern of maintenance and heat to the forefront. How do you keep thousands of servers cool, how do you maintain thousands of servers from a break fix standpoint, and how do they do it withut breaking the bank. Oh, and we need hundreds more servers to store the satellite images for Google Earth. And less cost. No Problem.
Solution:
Using customized Dell Technology for compute Google is now one of the most favored search engines, and Google Earth has over one billion downloads.
The Story:
Before Google Earth it what it is today, early mirror worlds used cartographic surveys supplemented with informational overlays to provide digital models of the Earth’s layout. Eventually, the use of aircraft and satellite imagery helped to produce more advanced digital layouts. In today’s world, Google Earth has utilized imagery obtained at the ground level to provide a more accurate representation of the world, and present images user can relate to. To provide 3-dimensional images of various terrains (e.g. mountains) and buildings, Google Earth also makes use of digital elevation model data that have been gathered by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Open-standards programs like Google Earth also incorporate input from users to help provide more accurate 3D representations of objects. Google Earth also utilizes frequently updated layers on the maps to help display information related to the location and/or the business residing at the location.