Google May Moving Data Centers Onto High Seas

[metta]

Google search finds seafaring solution

Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own “computer navy”.
The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.
The “water-based data centres” would use wave energy to power and cool their computers, reducing Google’s costs. Their offshore status would also mean the company would no longer have to pay property taxes on its data centres, which are sited across the world, including in Britain.

In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: “Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”
The increasing number of data centres necessary to cope with the massive information flows generated on popular websites has prompted companies to look at radical ideas to reduce their running costs.
The supercomputers housed in the data centres, which can be the size of football pitches, use massive amounts of electricity to ensure they do not overheat. As a result the internet is not very green.
Data centres consumed 1 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2005. By 2020 the carbon footprint of the computers that run the internet will be larger than that of air travel, a recent study by McKinsey, a consultancy firm, and the Uptime Institute, a think tank, predicted.
In an attempt to address the problem, Microsoft has investigated building a data centre in the cold climes of Siberia, while in Japan the technology firm Sun Microsystems plans to send its computers down an abandoned coal mine, using water from the ground as a coolant. Sun said it could save $9 million (£5 million) of electricity costs a year and use half the power the data centre would have required if it was at ground level.
Technology experts said ...”

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4753389.ece

 

[Persian89]

Great now we can be wiped out virtually by hurricanes and literally.

I know I shouldnt laugh but.....

For what its worth, never been affected by hurricanes, so I am sorry.

 

[ace3316]

sounds like an interesting concept, but there area lot of variables to work through.

 

[thermodynamics]

I've always thought that the polar caps could be ginormous data centers... I should patent that idea...

I would think that if it were a problem to cool the computers, just locate the datacenters where you could always use outdoor air to cool them, ie northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia...??

 

[Paws]

Once all our private data is on high seas, no privacy protection law of any country will apply and Google can do what they want with it :/

 

[Persian89]

I have informed google of your knowledge for their plans. Expect the google 'security' team at your door shortly.

hihihi that med me giggle....we already got him, hun.

 

[Paws]

Bullshit, they can't bypass my firewall

 

[Persian89]

Bullshit, they can't bypass my firewall

You're running Windows, man... WIND0ZE!
We bypassed your firewall as soon as you inserted the CD to install.

 

[Paws]

What does Windows have to do with my apartment door

 

[Persian89]

Everything...freeee yoooouuuur miiiiind

 

[mike_n_herrin]

i heard a bit about something like this the other day on NPR. they were talking to google who thinks we should be 100% renewable energy in the next few years. they think it's possible and likely. i think it might be possible, but i think it's unlikely we can change an entire industry that quickly.

 

[star-warrior]

Remember when google was just a search engine all them years ago?

It's gonna be the cyborg empire in a coupla years.

 

[Yuki Sohma]

Once all our private data is on high seas, no privacy protection law of any country will apply and Google can do what they want with it :/

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

gives new meaning to "Internet Piracy"

 

[Spiff]

Arrrr! This is good news for Pirates. Suddenly this commercial has new meaning: