Actual original reporting, wow, sadly unusual these days for any publication. My respect for CNET might be resurrected.
Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
151–160 of 250 posts
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#152Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#153Very 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?
Don't know how this'd work in actual international waters, but no, this is in a bay , nothing international about it.
Its being built at an island in SF Bay. That doesn't mean its going to be operated there.
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#154Earlier 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".
While we're speculating on the meaning behind the name(s) RE:wind, remember that Google acquired Makani Power a while back. They build wind generated power systems using large kites. What better place to put them into production than at sea where there isn't much worry about crashing to the ground.
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#155Something 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.
Hmm, what if both are right?
It could be a floating prison, filled with a giant data-center! The NSA+Google tie could mean that they both needed an interrogation free zone, one for torture, the other for stealing data. Both would benefit form letting prisoners generate the energy. They could even argue, that it's good for health to breath sea air and do regular "workout". Then they could offer the unused crunching power as an OSaaS – Overseas Sofware as a Service that is similar to AWS and Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Aside from that, isn't it illegal to systematically heat the water of the ocean with hot waste water?? Can't something be done against that?
Why are such prison ships even allowed to be built from tax-money, isn't it illegal?
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#156The middle of the ocean could be a a very high margin location for IaaS hosting. Due to speed-of-light delays, some of the ideal locations for hosting high-speed trading arbitrages are in the middle of the ocean. Being half way between two exchanges would allow you to notice a small difference in price of some commodity in two different exchanges and buy and sell microseconds before your competitors on the mainland k…
If this actually worked, there would be boats sitting in the middle of the Atlantic and Pacific with computers on them. I have no idea if they are sitting there, but I'm pretty sure if it was an idea that worked, it would be done by now.
I think it's possible to build a platform, like an oil drilling platform, survivable in the middle of the ocean (against storms and rogue waves) and hook fiber into it by dropping fiber in extremely high-strength conduit (like oil drilling pipe) to the ocean floor and then across the ocean to continents.
I don't think the cost/benefit is acceptable considering more serviceable locations that already have fiber, like Hawaii in the Pacific. Operational costs for a floating platform are much higher, and fixing anything major would take days instead of hours.
What about DDoS attacks (N/A if these are private network links) or real pirate attacks?
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#157There are actually 4 "vessels". Look at the names -- using binary :) BAL0001 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE & REPAIR LLC 2010 Freight Barge 2164.0 249.6 BAL0010 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2011 Passenger Barge (Inspected) 2520.0 260.1 BAL0011 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2011 Passenger Barge (Inspected) 2520.0 260.1 BAL0100 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2012 Freight Barge 2164.0 249.6
FYI, "Buy N Large" was the fictional Costco-like store from Pixar's WALL-E.
I suspect the name may just be to confuse anyone trying to look into it. "By and Large" returns over 250 million results in Google. Anyone looking to find permits, job postings, or random government filings would need to dig through tons of unrelated cruft.
This is done pretty often for shell companies, they will have names like "Twisting River" or just "Investment Vehicle VII, LLC"
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#158There are actually 4 "vessels". Look at the names -- using binary :) BAL0001 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE & REPAIR LLC 2010 Freight Barge 2164.0 249.6 BAL0010 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2011 Passenger Barge (Inspected) 2520.0 260.1 BAL0011 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2011 Passenger Barge (Inspected) 2520.0 260.1 BAL0100 BY AND LARGE LLC * * C & C MARINE 2012 Freight Barge 2164.0 249.6
The picture of what we're guessing is the data center is BAL0010 which is listed as a Passenger vessel above.
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#159Something 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.
Can someone in Portland check the ship #? The article photo shows that BAL0001 and BAL0010 are in SF. I'm guessing the Portland one is either BAL0011 or BAL0100.
From the vessel listings above, I'd guess it will be BAL0011.
Re: Is Google building a hulking floating data center in SF Bay?
#160I wouldn't be surprised if it was a GoogleX project of some sort.