Mountain View (CA) – Google has an idea how to increase the mobility of data centers around the world and make them available in extreme environments: The company thinks of crane-mounted, floating data center units on a sea platform.  

Google always has had its own strategies how to squeeze the most out of servers and data centers. When most companies were looking into mainframe systems, Google chose to build its data centers based on thousands of cheap PCs. It was also one of the first companies to come up with innovative floor plans, building architectures and power supply approaches to run its data centers. A patent filing now reveals how the company could deploy and secure data centers around the world.       

According to the patent titled "Water-based data centers", Google envisions a floating sea platform with stacked containers that house servers. The unit could be deployed in rough geographic regions or in areas where a land-based data center would be too expensive.

"A system includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units," the filing states.

The company describes the sea-based unit to integrate a power generator that produces electricity using the energy from tides that splash against the side of the floating barges. "In general, 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.”

According to Google, such computing modules could be particularly useful for military purposes, huge events or in the cases of natural disasters.

For the military, computing resources could be relocated quickly using military-grade transportation equipment. Huge events that attract thousands of people, which, according to Google, often take place near a river or an ocean, could put a strain on local computing power and benefit from temporary data centers. Such floating data centers could also provide valuable resources during and after natural disasters.