Startup Builds Prototype For Floating Data Center

1sockchuck writes: California startup Nautilus Data Technologies has developed a floating data center that it says can dramatically slash the cost of cooling servers. The company's data barge is being tested near San Francisco, and represents the latest chapter in a long-running effort to develop a water-based data center. Google kicked things off with a 2008 patent for a sea-going data center that would be powered and cooled by waves, conjuring visions of offshore data havens. Google never built it, but IDS soon launched its own effort to convert old Navy vessels into "data ships" before going bankrupt. Nautilus is using barges moored at piers, which allows it to use bay water in its cooling system,eliminating the need for CRAC units and chillers. The company says its offering may benefit from the growing focus on data centers' water use amid California's drought.

Comments

"growing focus on data centers' water use"

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> growing focus on data centers' water use amid California's drought

Um...what? Don't they just chill the water, let the data center warm it and then reuse it?

Why not check to see what California agriculture's doing with it's majority share of the water first?

Re:"growing focus on data centers' water use"

[Coren22]

I believe that the chillers used in data centers spray water over a radiator allowing the water to evaporate, the evaporating water draws heat away causing a performance increase to the warm side of the AC unit.

Usually however, they use grey water for this purpose as the water doesn't need to be clean, any water (except black water) will work. This is why the concerns over the NSA Utah data center's water usage are laughable, it is using grey water, not clean water, so it is water that otherwise would be being treated and dumped into a river.

Re:"growing focus on data centers' water use"

[serbanp]

No. It gets lost through evaporation.

Re:"growing focus on data centers' water use"

[gstoddart]

So, I'm no rocket surgeon ... but even I can imagine a closed system.

You know, it evaporates, but it's still inside some kind of vessel. Then it condenses, and you magically have water again. The water can then be evaporated again. Bonus points if you can exchange some of the heat with a separate loop of water without mixing them. Or maybe some kind of thing to increase the surface area and cool it. I'm calling it a radiator.

It's a new idea I just made up. Brand new and everything.

you just told us that they are evaporating the water, so it would end up in the atmosphere

Go the remedial section, look at several examples of closed systems and recirculation.

A hockey arena, your kitchen, your car AC (or it's engine cooling system), a nuclear submarine .. these are all applications which exist right now which allow the equivalent to happen. All without dumping it straight into the atmosphere.

Seriously ... WTF? Do you think magic happens inside of an air conditioner or a fridge?

I can't speak to how well it works or what the limitations are ... but I can say that what you describe is, in fact, a solved problem.

Unless of course you're imagining the streampunk data center, in which case venting the steam is just part of the awesome. But somehow, I don't think you meant that.

Modulating local water temps?

[ah.clem]

Is anyone considering the local effects of warming the water in the harbors these centers will be docked in? It seems to me, given the current toxic algal bloom off the west coast of the US at the moment, we might be just a bit concerned, right?

Re:Modulating local water temps?

[1sockchuck]

In a recent test, Nautilus says the water being returned to the bay was was just 4 degrees warmer than the intake temperature. Their design goal is to minimize the temperature differential to avoid any environmental impact. Having said that, the proof-of-concept test was with 5 racks of gear, rather than an 8 megawatt data center. They believe the design works, but it hasn't yet been tested at scale.

Re:Modulating local water temps?

[starless]

4 degrees (C??) seems fairly large.
Even if their "goal is to minimize the temperature differential" presumably the energy they
are dumping into the bay will be the same.
e.g. faster flow will probably result in lower temperature differentials but applied to a larger quantity of water

Re:Modulating local water temps?

[TWX]

Water has a much higher heat capacity than air does. Water is also a much more effective growth-medium than air is. The environmental effects of heat on air do exist, but they aren't as substantial as they are for water.

Re:Modulating local water temps?

[TWX]

So, what's clownish about identifying something that's been shown to be a problem in the past?

Re:Modulating local water temps?

[FranTaylor]

Hot air will move up and away, how water will disperse slower. Also land/air animals are generally much less sensitive to changes in temperature than aquatic animals.

in other words, it screws up the weather, but you don't know how much

Totally different meaning of Software Piracy

[gurps_npc]

I can see it now, actual pirates stealing full boatloads of servers.

Re:Totally different meaning of Software Piracy

[quantaman]

I can see it now, actual pirates stealing full boatloads of servers.

Alternately:

SysAdmin: The data centre is down.

Manager: It crashed?

SysAdmin: Yup.

Manager: How long till it's back up?

SysAdmin: Not sure, a few months maybe.

Manager: A FEW MONTHS?!?! What the hell happened?? Can't you just reboot things?!?

SysAdmin: Not really, a yacht crashed into it and it's sitting at the bottom of the harbour, it's going to take a few months to patch the hole and raise it back up to the surface.

Re:Salt water?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. I used to work for a cruise line in IT. Each cruise ship is basically a floating data center because of all the things the computers are involved with. The infrastructure folks would say that it was the most hellish environment imaginable for servers and often kept multiple extras for any hardware on ship for when something failed.

Re:Salt water?

[FranTaylor]

The infrastructure folks would say that it was the most hellish environment imaginable for servers

You lock your servers up in airtight steel containers, you have an infinite heat sink available for free, and you don't have to worry about finding an admin at whatever hour, because they are right there on the ship. Sounds a lot better than most installations.

Re:Skeptical

[FranTaylor]

having your servers on a ship can come in handy if your country suddenly decides to change its data retention laws

Why not just pump in sea water?

[HockeyPuck]

Is it really cheaper to build a barge than it is to circulate sea water to a land based facility?

Too bad they aren't making distilled water, too.

[denis-The-menace]

They could use the "Free" heat to boil the water to make distilled water and sell the distilled water!

Re: Good/Bad/Ugly

[ShanghaiBill]

Far better to use waste heat from power plants to drive desalination

Even better would be to forget about desalination, and just stop paying subsidies to people growing rice in the desert.