
Inside Lucasfilm's Data Center - taylorbuley
http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/20110325/lucasfilms-data-center-and-an-encounter-with-the-real-death-star-video/
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phlux
Heh. I designed that facility.

Back then, it was for Raleigh Mann, who is now head of net ops (director?) at
google.

The original design of that facility was supposed to be based on fiber to the
desktop which would allow any idle machines in the campus to become a part of
the render farm when not in use.

Immediately after this facility was designed, it was announced that they were
looking to extend production to asia, which was why they were looking at
singapore - as artists in asia are much cheaper than here.

The cable plant of the DC was pretty novel back in 2004 when we designed it.

This was one of the first 10G networks in production, based on Foundry MG8
chassis at the time. There was a DC powere plant that was designed for the
datacenter - but due to design flaws in the foundry chassis, it had to be torn
out and AC infrastructure installed.

When the DC was being built out, there was many tens of thousands of gear that
were brought onsite and stored overnight in a cage in the parking garage - one
of the workers apparently came back at night and stole a bunch of the core
networking gear causing delays in deployment.

EDIT: I forgot -- when we were frst doing designs of the DC, I wanted to do
the design to look like the inside of the deathstar -- and it was vehemently
opposed by execs in lucas. I have no idea why, though...

We were all really disappointed that they didn't have any interest to apply
some aesthetics to the design.

