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Google's Floating Datahaven
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Monday September 15, @10:15AM
from the don't-spring-a-leak dept.
from the don't-spring-a-leak dept.
PDG writes "Google has pending plans to take its data centers off-shore, literally. By moving their data centers to floating barges in international waters, they are able to save money on taxes and electricity (using wave based power) as well as reside their operations outside the jurisdiction of governments. There is mention of hurricane and other caveats, but I wonder how they plan to get a bandwidth pipe large enough and still be reliable. Seems like a chapter out of a Neal Stephenson novel." You might recall earlier discussions on the same subject.
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Hardware: The Google Navy 259 comments
theodp writes "Is Google preparing to launch its own Navy? In its just-published application for a patent on the Water-Based Data Center, Google envisions a world where 'computing centers are located on a ship or ships, which are then anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away from computers in the data center.' And you thought The Onion was joking when it reported on Google's Fleet of Naval Warships!"
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In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces a multi-billion dollar investment in a fleet of submarines.
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces a multi-billion dollar investment in a fleet of submarines.
You kid, but wait till Google has some shit that China, Iran, or even the US doesn't like. Or Greenpeace or some other aggressive group doesn't like.
Accidents do happen at sea!
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Interesting)
It would serve as a good reminder to corporate interests, domestic and abroad, that they operate at the will of the citizens of countries that protect them. That is part of what those taxes are funding. Yarr, avast ye maties, plunder me some big iron and NAS!
While I think Google's intentions here are probably good in the "freedom of speech" department, I'd rather see them addressing the root cause preventing them from maintaining servers on shore. Taxes they can't fix, but we pride ourselves on being a "free country". What do they need us, as citizens, to do to protect their interests?
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Google & guns (Score:5, Insightful)
So will Google have to have armed guards to shoot pirates? Is killing people to protect your servers considered "evil" ?
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Ha! And you think Google isn't prepared for that?
Google Android...a platform for "mobile phones" huh.
The Dalvik virtual machine sounds kinda like Dalek to me. Coincidence? Or killer robot defense force that also doubles as WiFi hotspots?
I hear they're launching stuff into space now too.
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
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Hi Tech needs protection (Score:5, Interesting)
Everyone laughs, but that doesn't change reality. Reality is that when you have a huge corporation with most of its assets tied up in advanced technology, then you have to pay to keep it protected.
If you move the technology off-shore to avoid taxes, then you lose the protection that those taxes provide. Both from criminals and from the police that are being paid by the taxes that your land-based operations incur. Does Google plan to hire Blackwater (the world's largest mercenary army) to keep people away from their floating data centers?
There is also the question of getting the money to build these floating structures. As I write on Monday morning Sept 15 2008, the banking structure of the USA is collapsing. The stock market is falling and several of the largest banks of the USA have declared bankruptcy. No banks means no capital for expansion. Granted this isn't such a big issue when Google has such a large stock value, but that stock value is mostly based on speculation and Google's price could fall as fast as it rose.
There is also the question of scale. One can claim that a huge data center could be powered by wave energy; it's another thing to actually do it. Especially when you are a public corporation and have to answer to entities that hold huge blocks of your stock.
Google is a company with an oversupply of young over-educated technological Grade-Point Angels (people whose most singular talent is to convince their teachers to give them high grades in order that the teachers will be able to reflect in their angel's glory). These people have a tendency to actually believe their fantasies, especially the fantasies that involve both ecology and advanced technology.
This factor has to be considered in all of their press releases and corporate projections.
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That's because... (Score:5, Funny)
You see, Neal was born in 2014, he was only allowed to come back in time if he wrote some 'science fiction' novels that would cover up the fact he was a time traveller by just making him look like he made some lucky guesses.
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Re:That's because... (Score:5, Funny)
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bandwidth (Score:5, Funny)
Google satellites of course!
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Re:bandwidth (Score:5, Funny)
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a rubber dinghy loaded to capacity with USB thumb drives.
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Re:bandwidth (Score:5, Funny)
its the latency that kills you
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Re:bandwidth (Score:5, Funny)
Latency can be reduced significantly if they begin sending your results a mere moment before you submit your search.
This feature requires you to be signed in I think.
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patent!? (Score:5, Funny)
From the article it's clear that they want to patent the idea.
I don't understand that. What's the use of a patent if somebody infringing it is also in international waters and not bounded to patent law?
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Umm no they are not. (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a bad dupe at best.
From what I heard was that Google was thinking of putting these in ports as mobile data centers.
Putting them off shore would cause more problems than it would solve.
1. Power. Wave power? Not with a barge. You might get a small part of you power from waves but not a lot.
2. Bandwidth. Fiber is fast everything else is slow. Running a fiber line out to a barge is iffy at best.
3. Weather.
Now if you could put one on say an offshore drilling rig that might work. If you used stranded natural gas for power and sea water for cooling it might make a little sense.
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wave power (Score:5, Interesting)
can be done with rolling seas..
You send something to the sea floor and secure it
the raising of the whole ship based on wave motion can drive a flywheel..... the displacement of the ship generates a LOT of power....
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International Waters?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Erm, considering that national boundaries extend 12 miles from the mainland, that's hardly international.
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There is no such thing (Score:5, Informative)
as 'outside government jurisdiction'. A ship HAS to be registered and carry the flag of SOME nation, and it will be subject to the laws of that country. So a ship is no more or less outside the law than if you built your data center in that country.
Supposing someone has a ship which is NOT registered anywhere, then it is essentially 'fair game'. If say the US didn't like what you're doing they can just sail on up and do whatever they want with you. They could certainly board and seize any such vessel, after all who's going to object? In theory there might be some construction of maritime law that provides some protections, but without a government capable of objecting you're basically SOL.
So, there would be no consideration on Google's part of evasion of law. Possibly a way to choose a regulatory regime you like, but that's about it. Plus remember any large corporation is pretty much held hostage to its investors, insurance requirements, financing, and ultimately to whatever nations it has substantial business interests in.
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Massive overstatement (Score:5, Insightful)
Google has pending plans...
Nonsense. Google has a patent application. Which means that someone, somewhere, inside Google had this nifty idea, and a patent search thought it might be original. In corporations these days, the standing instructions are that if an idea is patentable, patent it - even if it is stupid or appears unworkable. This idea may be no more than bullshit round the water cooler.
Corporations want to build up a big patent portfolio. Financial types see that as good, which ups the stock price. And they want lots of patents in their pocket for when you get to a patent shoot-out (or to be so dangerous that one is pre-empted. The idea is that when someone accuses you of infringing a patent, you dump a huge pile of patents on the table and say "I bet you're infringing one of these".
So this article is a massive hype from a straw in the wind. Google is always thinking about datacentres, and this is a patent on an original, if not vary practical, thought.
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Good news, bad news (Score:5, Interesting)
The bad news: They use the UK spelling ("data centre") in the link, and don't notice the 404s.
Worse news: The Times story get Slashdotted, and all those readers can't find your site.
Live and learn. Now we own datacentreknowledge.com as well. If anyone was actually looking, our link is below.
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Re:One word... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry. Each barge has a team of ninjas assigned to it to fight off pirates.
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Re:I'm curious (Score:5, Funny)
if they have any plans to deal with corrosive salts from the oceans?
They're breeding a dolphin/deer hybrid to swim around the facility and lick off the salt.
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Re:Remember that Total Information Awareness plan? (Score:5, Funny)
Follow the law is neither good or evil. It's being lawful, which is the opposite of chaotic. That being said, as long as you're not a paladin, you don't have to worry about laws that aren't good.
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Re:Company navy? Examples? (Score:5, Interesting)
East India Company [wikipedia.org]
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