Servers at Sea: Google Ships Could Soon Set Sail
A Google patent application filed two years ago but published this fall is getting some new attention because it's just too interesting to ignore. The patent (link) is for putting data centers on ships at sea and harvesting the energy in waves for power.
The biggest benefit for the company, though, could come from changed legal and tax status by placing the ships outside of national jurisdiction. It's a thought both fascinating and frightening, although it also may end up as just another crazy patent filed for the sake of filing it.
Called a Water-Based Data Center, the idea was written up by the UK's Times Online today with slightly misleading verbiage like the following:
Google refused to say how soon its barges could set sail. The company said: "We file patent applications on a variety of ideas. Some of those ideas later mature into real products, services or infrastructure, some don't."
There's lengthy and sometimes well informed discussion of the data-ship patent over at Slashdot today as well. Jeff Nolan does his best to debunk the the idea too. The whole thing also brings to mind the plans by the website Pirate Bay to buy retired British naval platform turned "micro-nation" Sealand. Those plans were not well received by authorities.
This Might Just Be a Pipe Dream
Two years ago I wrote about another Google patent, for software that would capture the ambient audio in a room and serve up contextual ads and content. That product hasn't come to market yet, as far as we know. (We kid, sort of.)
It's hard not to want to sound the alarm, though, on such strange plans. Google's huge, centralized store of data about so much of our lives is inherently cause for concern - but put that data out to sea and outside of ostensible government oversight and it's downright frightening. In some places that could be a positive development but generally speaking we're not sure it's a gamble we'd like to take.
We don't know about the ecological impacts or the technical feasibility, but we imagine this idea would be a pretty hard one to resist if it could be implemented.
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That could pose some really interesting activity being done on those servers. Google would have the money to do it, but I'm sure some other groups could take this idea and really take the word pirate back to the old sea once again! :)
Rex
Not a gimmick, pure economics. The cost savings in electricity alone will make these boats a reality very soon.
But I do doubt the placement - 30.01 miles out to sea means "tax free" yes...
...it also prevents any kind of law enforcement, be it civil or military, from protecting their assets.
Will we see a "Google Private Army", heavily armed with the latest HK weaponry, but dressed all cute in multi-colored Docker® shorts and sandals ( crocs? ), protecting the boats?
Google really may be taking over the world soon :-P.
I do think this would be a winning idea if it ever became feasible to implement. That would certainly be the latest in green computing.
It would be much easier to set them up at the base of a hill with enough water fall to drive some pelting wheels....
How would they maintain a fast and stable connection? A satellite link would have too much latency, wouldn't it? Would they be able to tap into a trans-oceanic cable?
Really interesting idea, which would be truly great if we lived in a perfect world.
In our current world though, where "Do No Evil" is a slightly loose concept, I'm not so sure, and I don't mean just from the Google side.
But very interesting idea nevertheless.
As Mike said,
getting a resilient, high speed Internet connection to ships 30+ miles offshore will pose some tricky engineering challenges!
You have go to be kidding me. What happens when the ship sinks?
This is the most stupid thing I ever read from a a long time :D
Nice one Micheal
totally agree with michael and nowizki....this is real?
i bet they know the end is comming soon ...
I can see it now. "Google boils the ocean with server heat. Endless Seafood Buffet now available."
Posted by: Dana D
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September 16, 2008 12:34 PM
Frightening that it's outside the reach of the kind and gentle Guantanamo-Bay watchers? And the folks who evicerated the constitution with their suspention of habeus corpus? Surely you jest.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. one day Google will rule the world. You just wait and see.
Jiff
www.datools.net.tc
Where are all of the wiggly-eyed, "the end is near" folks that usually jump all over the Google stories? On the LHC threads, most likely. {-)
Read the Tom Clancy book Net Force Cybernation and you will see what it could be like.
So Google can serve the ads to the fish.
But I like this idea! Soon Google will own(ed) all the undersea cable ...
7 miles off-shore is national jurisdiction, dip****.
Harvesting the energy of the waves is cool, but if you could integrate a water cooling system you'd require a lot less energy from the waves in the first place.
It's a shame that I don't think we'll see this for a while.. if ever.
@#5 and #7:
Google is working with a few companies to lay trans-pacific cables, so they could possibly tap into those...
The next thing to this is Google Airlines... Google Bus... Google Car.. Google Homes... Google Processor.. Google Motherboard.. Google Monitor.. Google PC.. Google Laptop... Google bank.. ??? Will google take over the world?
Hey - Aircraft carriers run at sea for months with multiple nuculear reactors and enough electronics to run most of today’s fortune 500 companies....if the government can do it why not Google?
I have got to say the comments on this article were by far better than the article itself. Thanks for a great start to the business week—oh, and Google has already taken over the world—you just don't know it yet.
>>
I have to agree with Jason on this one...if the government can do it why not Google? They have enough money and brain power, might as well!
This rocks! Not that Google needs to save money on their tax bill, but every little counts! This is renewable energy at it's best!
Chris from http://www.boatpride.com
Google could do strong wave manipulation by using environment tatics...