Google patent application reveals plans for floating data centers

The idea of floating data centers is hardly a new one, but Google looks like it might be set to take things a big step further than most, at least if one of its recent patent applications is any indication. Apparently, Google not only plans to take advantage of the sea water for a cooling system, but generate power for the floating platforms using so-called Pelamis Wave Energy Converters as well (you can see it doing its thing in the video after the break). According to the patent application, that would allow the data centers to be moved closer to users to cut down on cross-country latency, and also make them ideally suited to more transient needs for computing power, such as after a natural disaster or when a military presence is needed. Of course, there's no evidence that Google has moved much beyond the sketch above just yet, but we certainly wouldn't put it past 'em to all of a sudden deploy a fleet of data centers when we least expect it.

[Via The Earth Times, thanks Bob]

[Mile @ Sep 8th 2008 1:09PM]

More importantly, you could set up shop in international waters and get out of paying any country any tax, amirite? Probably not. What do I know about international waters?

[kjb434 @ Sep 8th 2008 1:28PM]

That would be cool if all online stores could set their servers there and avoid stupid taxes!

[HighTeckRedNeck @ Sep 8th 2008 1:32PM]

I for one am reminded of Sealand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

[Matt @ Sep 8th 2008 1:58PM]

If you read the patent, the system requires a land-based component for the ships to be hardwired to, so all the talk about Google doing this to avoid taxes/privacy laws/etc is for naught.

[waffles @ Sep 8th 2008 2:35PM]

I for one am reminded of Simpsons:
Moe: Sorry, 2 p.m. Or you can steal a boat and sail out to international waters, heh.
Homer: What's that, a theme park?

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF08

[fischju @ Sep 8th 2008 4:52PM]

Being reminded of sealand reminds me that The Pirate Bay wanted to buy it, may buy one of these instead

[james @ Sep 8th 2008 8:13PM]

aww damn, my gmail got hijacked by black bart. arrrrr!

[Wolfticket @ Sep 8th 2008 1:15PM]

It's all well and good until Google Images sinks.

[Ryan @ Sep 8th 2008 1:16PM]

So, if I'm being chased by a shark, will this thing blow up if I shoot it?

[Jake @ Sep 8th 2008 2:11PM]

I think it should, it's a giant floating red barrel, and everyone knows what red barrels do.

[Scythe @ Sep 8th 2008 1:17PM]

Watch out for that hurricane...

[raul @ Sep 8th 2008 1:48PM]

Yeah... with oil platforms being shut down with severe storms, I wonder how they would manage uptime on this system. It looks very interesting though.

[Matt @ Sep 8th 2008 2:01PM]

You put it in a place that doesn't get hurricanes, like off the coast of Northern California.

[jeti @ Sep 8th 2008 1:26PM]

Someone has been watching James Bond movies again...

[patrickwvu @ Sep 8th 2008 1:30PM]

"Sorry honey, I'm going to be late for dinner tonight."
"Why what's wrong?"
"I have to clean the barnacles off server 6 again."

[harley @ Sep 8th 2008 2:10PM]

and then pirates come and take it over! arrrrr gimme yur data arrrrrr

[John @ Sep 8th 2008 1:33PM]

This should raise a few eyebrows with the "Global Warming" alarmists.

Why wait for increased atmospheric temperatures to melt the polar ice caps when we can have millions of servers speed it along?

[Ladislaio @ Sep 8th 2008 2:29PM]

Directly using the water to both (partly) power and cool the servers will save quite a bit on the power usage front. This means less coal getting burnt and less greenhouse gases. Even nuclear power could be less efferent than this as the power plant uses local bodies of water for cooling.
Of course you cannot count on people being logical about the environment, or anything else for that matter.
[url]http://depletedcranium.com/?p=716[/url]

[mad8vskillz @ Sep 8th 2008 5:22PM]

this will add a new meaning to software piracy...

[jd @ Sep 8th 2008 1:42PM]

doesn't that warm up the sea water even faster if we heat the water directly instead of heating the air we breath?

they probably will set this data center up on the mexico gulf area to take advantage of the stormy weather as well.. hmmmmmm

[GaryZ @ Sep 8th 2008 2:19PM]

So I can just cut the cables and steal it for my own porn storage purpose... right?

[Big Wizz @ Sep 8th 2008 1:47PM]

Are they going to employ Aquaman for security?

[Paul Holstein @ Sep 8th 2008 1:49PM]

Data Center + Water = patent. I'm going to patent Data Centers in space before they get that one too.

[Ryan @ Sep 8th 2008 2:09PM]

If you didn't, you'd be the biggest failure of all time.

[nuclear.torpedo @ Sep 8th 2008 1:49PM]

Sweet. Finally something to use these torpedoes for.

[Luke @ Sep 8th 2008 1:53PM]

Maybe one of the reasons is subpoenas: if they're in international waters, wouldn't they be immune to information requests by the US govt, as long as the servers are outside the US?

[Earl Jr. @ Sep 8th 2008 5:22PM]

not quite. A company can be subpoenaed as long as it operates in the united states. The only way to escape that is if they moved everything into international waters.

[michaelportent @ Sep 8th 2008 2:04PM]

Am I the only one who thinks floating a data center in the ocean is a bad idea? I can see it now: foggy night, somebody accidentally runs a cruise ship into it - everybody's GMail Inboxes sink to the bottom of the sea.

[Newsguy @ Sep 8th 2008 2:11PM]

Nothing new here. What does google really have? They have a search engine that worked really good 3+ years ago before all the spammers figured out how to dupe googles pagerank system. Google then has some really gimmicky products that make no money whatsoever and are no real threat to any other business. So they have to come up with mroe gimmics to try to persuade shareholders from jumping ship with really gimmicky and stupid ideas like these. Google will be the next dot bomb.

[CraigJ @ Sep 8th 2008 2:12PM]

bah. call me when they're ready to put them in geosync.

[PHO @ Sep 8th 2008 2:16PM]

The people at Google are so bored....

[PHO @ Sep 8th 2008 2:16PM]

People at Google are so bored..

[Kent @ Sep 8th 2008 2:21PM]

So, if it's off a coastline, you deal with taxes, but if it's international waters, you may have the old joke about "Software Pirates of the Caribbean" not being a joke anymore. Not to mention land-links via optical cable that would be temporary/expensive or permanent/why-are-we-on-a-boat-again?.

There are calmer swaths of ocean to put one in, but then wave power becomes less of an option, as does cooling. Generally, cold dynamic water equals squalls that will take out the boat or damage the wave power system. With so many factors anchoring the site in one location, it seems pointless to float it at all. you might as well find some rocky coastline in Alaska or Canada and blast something into the cliff face.

Well, it is a big ocean - I'm sure these things come together efficiently somewhere.

[dchamp1337 @ Sep 8th 2008 3:35PM]

Sounds like Google's aiming to build a flotilla like the one in Snowcrash.

[Crome TysnomiGnu32 @ Sep 8th 2008 3:36PM]

Damn! You beat me to it. Good sir.

[Crome TysnomiGnu32 @ Sep 8th 2008 3:35PM]

A floating datacenter.

And then eventually, we'll have cruise ships with huge satellite dishes latching on to it.

And then we'll have hundreds of refugee boats latching on. And then Google will have the largest floating datacenter and multimedia communications event in the world.

/and then someone will hopefully get the reference.

[Hiro Protagonist @ Sep 9th 2008 1:00AM]

No, I totally didn't get the reference. Perhaps you could explain it?

[saint.albatross @ Sep 8th 2008 4:17PM]

Am I the only one who thinks that this looks like a giant...?
Willy!
Johnson!
Hot dog! Fresh hot dogs for sale!
Two balls, one strike!

[Alan @ Sep 8th 2008 7:19PM]

SF Bay people. The biggest earthquake worry at this datacenter would be the cable snapping or a tsunami.

[Magallanes @ Sep 8th 2008 5:43PM]

The main trouble with the sea is the salty water is corrosive, you must repaint (with a expensive) the surface of the floating platform every year and to apply another countermeasure against the sea breeze. Electronic system must be keep far away of the sea. And, of course, harddisk are not made for a constant movement, not at least the inexpensive IDE and the pro SCSI.

And not to say for maintenance a machine, a single "check the power supply of the node xxxx" can become a very risky task.

[StalematE @ Sep 8th 2008 5:50PM]

i seez ya fishiez...

[meist3r @ Sep 8th 2008 7:23PM]

If we want to keep the .tv domain names we better get something to replace Tuvalu quick before they've sunken completely.

[linuxamp @ Sep 8th 2008 11:48PM]

I can't wait until google starts requiring SCUBA certifications on their IT applications.

[Jeefers @ Sep 15th 2008 1:23PM]

Talk about useless inventions! By the time this could be implemented, data centers will be the size of a suitcase and produce almost no heat. Are they giving people free pizza with any patent application at Google these days?