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:Well (Score:4, Insightful)
Thus increasing the ease of seizing their property under the guise of a Coast Guard inspection/quaranteen, firing on them at sea, sinking them and blaming it on pirates/terrorists, etc? Sounds like a good plan to me.
Heat sink (Score:3, Insightful)
how long do you think it will be before the thermal pollution [wikipedia.org] watchdogs start cracking down?
Re:Them scurvy dogs (Score:2, Insightful)
Loose Lisp sink ships
Re:A Patent? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It says they're nearly impervious to disaster (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It says they're nearly impervious to disaster (Score:4, Insightful)
Tsunami's don't work that way. Generally, the wave out at sea (or even in the harbor) is quite small, it is only when it pushes up against a shelf of land that it rises 30 or more feet above the surface of the sea. Besides, cargo ships are big, huge in fact. Even a 100 ft rouge wave (which would be completely unheard of in a harbor) would have trouble significantly damaging one of them. When was the last time that you heard about a cargo ship sinking while docked at harbor?.
Re:It says they're nearly impervious to disaster (Score:3, Insightful)
In San Francisco Bay? While perhaps theoretically possible, I don't think a tsunami that would be likely to take out such a floating data center has occurred in recorded history, and given the geography of the region it would pretty hard (if it was in the ocean off the SF coast, it would be in more danger.)
Re:Well (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Them scurvy dogs (Score:3, Insightful)
Navies only defend the state against attacks against the state. It's not like in GTA when they'll call in the Army if the FBI can't capture you. Torpedos are fucking expensive. The odds are very high that it cost more than your house, and depending on where you live, more than your entire neighbourhood put together.
The reason you wouldn't be able to do this is a simple one of supply. Either you would have to keep getting food or you'd have to keep it unmanned.
If you want to eat, then you have to go ashore to a country that will either be a) ready to arrest you or b) ready to sell you out.
If there's a derelict ship in International waters that's full of computers and other expensive shit, I promise that some enterprising individual will make a field trip and just steal the fucking thing.
Your ship eats too -- that fuel isn't going to just magically fall from the sky.
You would also have to find a way to get Internet access to your ship. Are you using a satellite? A giant danlgy cable? Where is the feed going ashore?
As for getting away with crimes just because you're not at home, Canada has laws against "sex tourism" -- essentially, if you break Canadian law while overseas, you can go to jail for it. I'm sure that similar legislation exists in the US.