Google File System is a proprietary distributed file system

Distributed file system

Network file system may refer to:* A distributed file system, which is accessed over a computer network* Network File System , a specific brand of distributed file system...

 developed by Google Inc. for its own use. It is designed to provide efficient, reliable access to data using large clusters of commodity hardware. A new version of the Google File System is codenamed Colossus.
GFS is optimized for Google's core data storage and usage needs (primarily the search engine), which can generate enormous amounts of data that needs to be retained; Google File System grew out of an earlier Google effort, "BigFiles", developed by Larry Page

Larry Page

Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...

 and Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin

Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....

 in the early days of Google, while it was still located in Stanford.