Leave it to a major player like Cisco Systems to investment in showing off their newest data center through a flashy interactive map. Cisco recently spent $80 million in the renovation of an unused office building on its campus in Richardson, Texas. What better way to fully display this achievement than through an interactive map?
Cisco's Richardson Data Center Interactive Map Tour
View the Richardson Data Center Interactive Tour.
The tour has a collection of videos with all the details about the data center, including close looks and insights from the architect. Not only can you see a cross-section of their whole campus and drill into a few different buildings but the crowning achievement of the Richardson Data Center is that it has details on all the cool dorky networking tech things a Cisco certified professional (CCNP, CCNA, etc) would care to know.
The 3-D cross-section of the center has galleries of photos along with videos on the following subjects:
- AC Handling
- Building Ramps
- Server Racks
- Data Distribution
- Structured Cable
- Etc.
For any world enterprise company looking to build a world class data center, this is a great resource to explore and see how a company that provides the backbone for most of the Internet builds their data centers. From a marketing standpoint the transparency and open access to information like this build huge amounts of credibility with their target audience.
I won’t go into all the details of the facility, like the 25,000 gallon thermal storage tank that stores up to 5 hours of water supply to the facility in the event of a water system failure. I’m guessing many of you simply aren’t interested in the details of a data center, and if you were you probably aren’t still reading this post as you have moved on to check out the interactive map for yourself.
I really recommend checking out this interactive map tour even if you are a true network administrator junkie.