71–80 of 250 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think wave power is deployed successfully yet[1]. The cooling would not be a leap of technology though. [1] Its under development http://www.pelamiswave.com/ but I don't think its finished yet.
Yeah, that's why I was trying to figure out how they would power it. Diesel generators seem... unGoogley.
> putting data centers inside shipping containers is already a well-established practice. Is this true? Does anyone know why? The article seems to assume it without saying why.
EDIT:
Also, I'm surprised I got the time right, for some reason 2005-2012 is one big blur to me and I usually pick the wrong end of that range when guessing when things happened. It also seems that none of these articles mention what I recalled reading in articles years ago about just replacing a box once its performance degrades. I'm either misremembering or that ended up being a non-feature once fielded.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/04/01/micro...
A more recent article, this one is MS in VA: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/boydton/
A critique of the approach: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9080738/6_reasons_why...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think wave power is deployed successfully yet[1]. The cooling would not be a leap of technology though. [1] Its under development http://www.pelamiswave.com/ but I don't think its finished yet.
Yeah, that's why I was trying to figure out how they would power it. Diesel generators seem... unGoogley.
> putting data centers inside shipping containers is already a well-established practice. Is this true? Does anyone know why? The article seems to assume it without saying why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_data_center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Modular_Data_center
Something similar is being outfitted in Portland, ME. http://www.pressherald.com/news/Clues_emerging_about_mystery... The OP is a much better article (The Press Herald is garbage). My original guess for the barge-building in Portland was a ocean-based prison facility for the government to use for interrogations. But it's seeming like the floating data center idea is much more likely.
Not a bad guess at all, since it really does look like a modern prison ship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vernon_C_Bain_Correctional...
How does the data get to/from the platform? Microwaves? Can that work from a slightly moving platform? My wacky guess would have been off-shore offices for employees that can't get H1Bs.
How does data get from the EU to the US? Or APAC to the US?
> putting data centers inside shipping containers is already a well-established practice. Is this true? Does anyone know why? The article seems to assume it without saying why.
eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwPSFpLX8I
A shipping container is a standardized container. It's like designing a PC case. Standard sizes makes things very convenient.
It's like Legos and interchangeable computing parts. But bigger.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I kind of doubt that these two names are related except that they both derive from the same common idiom.
Also "by and large" is a nautical term meaning (roughly) "whether sailing against the wind or sailing with the wind".
Very interesting... Any chance that this will mean the Govt can't subpoena data from this data center if it is floating far enough from the US coast? Or does it not matter because clearly the US will be the closest harbor?
It has to connect to the U.S. somehow. So they can still subpeona data moving through the switch. There's going to be a cable connecting this to the mainland, which one could argue means the ship is moored to the U.S. coastline? Might be a fun legal battle.
Well if they weren't an american corporation they would be doing this anyway. Besides, perhaps the most important data wouldn't ever have to be transmitted into the country.
> Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 4th ed., p. 91
