Having trouble finding a good site for your next data center, one that comes complete with good cheap electrical power, advanced cooling capabilities and the requisite high-bandwidth links? Well don’t look on land: the smartest place for the data center of the future is five to seven miles offshore sitting in 50 to 70 meters of water, according to a Google patent application uncovered by ZDnet’s Larry Dignam. The patent, which was approved Aug. 28, is for a self-sustaining floating data center powered and cooled by the ocean. How cool is that?
Locating the data center on the ocean helps Google solve several problems at once, Dignam says:
* Google could power these data center pontoons with wind potentially and cool them with water. You could argue that these ocean data centers could be self sustaining.* Property taxes? There’s no property.
* State negotiations and building rights? Launching these data centers may require a lot less red tape.
Of course, the idea has its downsides as well. Just like offshore oil platforms, these data centers would need to be secured not only from hurricanes and other ocean storms, but also from manmade issues like pirates and terrorists. And they’ll probably be hit with the same ‘not in sight of my beach’ issues faced by planned ocean-sitting windfarms. Still, the whole idea is interesting to ponder. For more information, take a look at the patent application here.
