Google already spends a lot of money deploying and maintaining its massive network of undersea fiber cables that it uses to help handle the enormous amounts of traffic it generates every day. And Network World reports that Google
really does have to plug a lot of money into protecting its investment
because apparently sharks are very fond of eating through undersea
cables.
According to Network World, Dan
Belcher, a product manager on the Google cloud team, recently revealed
that Google actually wraps its trans-Pacific fiber cables in kevlar to
make sure they’re 100% shark-proof. While Network World
doesn’t give any dollar figures for how much this costs, we imagine
it’s pretty expensive since Kevlar isn’t cheap and Google is covering thousands of miles worth of cables that span the Pacific Ocean.
But why are sharks attracted to Google’s fiber cables in the first place? One theory flagged by Network World
posits that “unlike short-haul terrestrial fiber cables or old copper
cables where the fiber did not emit noticeable fields, undersea cables
must carry high voltage power to the undersea repeaters,” which means
that they’re emitting electric fields that the sharks are mistaking for
“distressed fish.”
Either
way, it’s good to know that Google is covering its bases in the deep
blue sea, even if it does mean tricking sharks out of a prospective
meal.
