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The Google Navy
Posted by
timothy
on Sat Sep 06, 2008 02:15 PM
from the but-it's-on-the-internet dept.
from the but-it's-on-the-internet dept.
theodp writes "Is Google preparing to launch its own Navy? In its just-published application for a patent on the Water-Based Data Center, Google envisions a world where 'computing centers are located on a ship or ships, which are then 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 from computers in the data center.' And you thought The Onion was joking when it reported on Google's Fleet of Naval Warships!"
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Technology: Google's Floating Datahaven 450 comments
PDG writes "Google has pending plans to take its data centers off-shore, literally. By moving their data centers to floating barges in international waters, they are able to save money on taxes and electricity (using wave based power) as well as reside their operations outside the jurisdiction of governments. There is mention of hurricane and other caveats, but I wonder how they plan to get a bandwidth pipe large enough and still be reliable. Seems like a chapter out of a Neal Stephenson novel." You might recall earlier discussions on the same subject.
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Hey everyone they're GREEN! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now focus on that apart from the fact that it would also allow them to shift the jurisdiction of their operations when laws change in specific regions.
Hell, fill them with enough guns and they could just put them in international waters. If any of these are launched, shall we start the pool on how long until the "Google fighting Piracy" joke headlines?
Isn't that bad for electronics? (Score:5, Informative)
My father-in-law worked as a linesman for AT&T about 30 years at a beach town in southern New Jersey. He told me that they had to replace electrnoic components almost twice as quickly as more inland areas because of the more corrosive saltwater air.
If this is a real effect, I imagine that it will be difficult to prevent on a ship in the ocean.
Re:Isn't that bad for electronics? (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, I know people, in the town I have just moved to, who live only tens of meters from the sea who have had no problems - but they have a massive rampart between them and the sea that (I think) blocks the spray.
Ships are going to be tricky but designs meant to keep salt spray out may be workable.
Parent
Re:Isn't that bad for electronics? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like the US Navy, every cruise line, and countless shipbuilders haven't ever put a computer on a seagoing vessel before.
"May be workable"? I'd say it's been solved many times over.
Parent
Re:Isn't that bad for electronics? (Score:4, Insightful)
[citation needed]
Parent
SS Google (Score:4, Interesting)
Sea-Code? (Score:5, Interesting)
This reminds me a lot of Sea Code [sea-code.com].
Basically, a boat a few miles of the coast in international waters with cheap labour from other countries living on the boat.
For real Google?
Old aircraft carriers would work (Score:4, Funny)
But there's the matter of pizza delivery.
Re:Old aircraft carriers would work (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Google Earth? (Score:5, Funny)
So presumably these ships will connect through a series of Google-Sats in geo-stationary orbits, linking to a Google-hub in each country. And behold, Google shall inherit the Earth. Thankfully, a network of Microsoft terrorists will be able to track then using Virtual Earth and infect the servers with Windows, thus rendering them useless and saving us all.
I, for one, welcome... (Score:5, Interesting)
But seriously, am I the only one who sees an inevitable path from "offshore datacenters" to "cyberpunk future where major corporations like Google declare sovereignty"?
Right Direction maybe better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Point taken on water temp, security and connections. Why not just have a submersible barge, and drop down to the ocean floor.
Makes it easy to moor. Fiber just lays on the ocean floor. Improved Security, and the water will be much cooler. Sort of a barge made like a giant heatsink. Mount the processors to the hull.
When the barge looses enough hardware, just raise it back up, service it and drop it back down.
Also reduced problems with being pitched around causing lost disk drives. Hurricanes? No problem.
A patent means.... nada. the math (Score:4, Interesting)
Something like 99.4% of patents never make a cent.
This one is particularly loopy.
Let's do the math. Let's say Google buys the Queen Mary. 80,000 tons. Let's say they anchor it someplace with an average wave height of 20 feet, wave period of 10 seconds. Raising 80,000 tons at 2 feet per second takes about 160,000 horsepower. Hmmm, that's very close to the original steaming capacity of the QM. In watts, that's about 120 megawatts, about ten times more than you'd need if you packed the ship with servers. Okay, so that looks easily doable.
Problem is, buying the electricity would be much cheaper. 12 megawatts will cost you about $700 an hour. Can you run and maintain and pay on the principal and pay salaries and insurance on $700/hour? No, not a couple of powers of ten.
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
GoogleWay (Score:5, Funny)
No.
GoogleBoat will GoogleFloat to a (Google)Safe (Google)Location.
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Funny)
Google Earth sees the pirates before they get close. I'm not sure what Google Boat does then, but it may involve ninjas.
Ahem... that would be Google Ninjas(TM).
... but they're still in beta.
DT
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:4, Insightful)
Russia's "Bazalt" naval weapons manufacturer recently proposed arming commercial vessels with automatic grenade launchers to deter pirates. There is an idea for Google! They can start with grenades and later upgrade to anti-ship missiles. Or just build an aircraft carrier and save on future operating costs and upgrades :)
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Funny)
That's unpossible. More pirates would cause a corresponding drop in global climate temperature.
Ramen.
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Interesting)
First, sea water temperatures vary greatly depending on the part of the world you're operating in. It's not uncommon for surface sea water temps to be in the 85F(30C)+ range for most areas where you're likely to moor a ship. The AC units that we used were barely able to keep the small server room that I ran cool under those conditions.
Second, the motion of the ship caused premature drive failures due to the pitch and roll of the ship. This could be alleviated with solid state drives, but that's a bit off for a data center at the moment.
Lastly, bandwidth and latency are problematic. Sure, Google could just buy a satellite, but they can't modify the 2000ms latency. Depending on ship size and sea conditions, keeping a satellite lock may be an issue as well due to roll.
All I can really say to Google is, good luck with all that!
Parent
Re:Cooling (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Okay, it's a neat idea ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Google (or Microsoft, or Apple, or..) doesn't patent every single idea they come up with now, someone else will sue them for it later on. If you were sued as often as Google [google.com], you'd learn to CYA every chance you could get. Such insanity is the price of doing business in the USA.
So owning patents (frivolous or not) is neutral. Releasing patents to the public is good. Suing others over frivolous patents is evil.
Google may not be doing "good", but they're still following their mantra.
Parent
Re:More reason? (Score:5, Funny)
I think they can manage 12 nano meters
Parent