Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Google Wants Server Farms on the High Seas?!


From IO9: The New York Times' Ashlee Vance [reported] that Google has taken out a patent to create "water based datacenters," which are essentially barges that house cargo container-sized server farms.

I just started hearing about these container/server farms. Microsoft has a huge network of them. Each one is pack with rack after rack of servers already networked together. All you do when they arrive is hook up your network connection, power and air conditioning. You NEVER enter the container which is sealed by the manufacturer. When enough of the servers in the container fail the whole thing is swapped out. One of these things is whacked enough, but the picture from Redmond was ACRES of these things stacked several units high. I was impressed by IL&M's server group until I saw what a REAL farm was. And now Google wants to up that ante with offshore barges full of containers? WTFUWT? Some suggestions are that these barges could go where the data is needed, like if a city needed emergency computer power these barges could be moved in complete and ready to go. Other more suspicious persons view data as some view account information and the need for places like the Swiss to give them security. These barges would not be under the control of any one country so in theory, the information would be secure....Still, its a weird world

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graphic from io9 article

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