Servers Ahoy — Startup To Build Floating Data Centers 219
1sockchuck writes "Startup International Data Security says it is moving ahead with plans to build data centers on cargo ships docked in the San Francisco Bay. IDS first announced its plans in 2008, but they were postponed by the credit crunch. The company says it has now lined up funding and an anchor tenant for a proof-of-concept 'dataship' that will hold 500 racks of servers in its cargo holds. IDS isn't alone in contemplating ship-board server farms, as Google has applied for a patent for a 'water-based data center.'"
Re:A Patent? (Score:3, Informative)
I was thinking the exact same thing.
You see so many patents that are like "a patent for doing something commonplace ... with a computer". Now I'm looking at "building a data center ... on a ship" and going WTF??
However, following the link to the Slashdot article, they're envisioning capturing the wave energy to run some of the power needs. So, that might be a somewhat novel idea that merits a patent.
Re:Well (Score:5, Informative)
Sure, land and buildings are expensive - but that expense is trivial compared to the cost of building and operating a ship. You're operating in a marine environment, and that means corrosion and a constant battle against it. That means algae and seaweed growing in your heat exchangers, or worse yet barnacles and clams/mussels/oysters taking up residence inside them. That means storms not only threaten you directly like they do a building, but they also strain your mooring lines and shore service connections (which will require routine maintenance). Etc... etc...
There's also tons of training, safety, insurance, and environmental regulations to contend with - and in most Western nations (I.E. those most likely to have the infrastructure you'll need to hook your ship to), the various regulatory bodies have no sympathy and no compunctions about shutting you down and/or seizing your vessel.
Not to mention that anyone who thinks land is expensive has never paid for mooring. Look at a map of any harbor and compare how much waterfront there is with how much land there is - waterfront is essentially one dimensional, while land is two dimensional. Worse yet, building new mooring is expensive. There's a whole raft load of environmental (much more so than on land) regulations on top of the zoning regulations.
This might work in an area with a lot of disused piers and infrastructure... But everywhere I'm familiar with in the US they're either already at capacity (and straining for more), or have repurposed this disused piers to new purposes. (Where they haven't demolished them outright either for new construction for new purposes or for habitat restoration.)
Re:Well (Score:3, Informative)
You've got a heatsink the size of the entire ocean sitting under your datacenter. I thought that was the main reason why they wanted to do this - run some radiators along the inside of your hull (or even poke them outside) and you've got all the cold you could ever use.
In the USA (and many Western Countries) there are all kinds of environmental regulations on the discharge of heat into local waterways.
It's actually kind of a big deal.
Otherwise heavy industry would crank up the temperature and kill the native aquatic species.