A new perspective on floating point operations comes from the plans of International Data Security (IDS) which aims on housing datacenters aboard decommissioned cargo ships. IDS plans as many as 50 of these installations, 22 of which are planned for North America, reports Data Center Knowledge.

According to Kenneth Jamaca of Silverback Migration Solutions, the first floating datacenter will tie up at San Francisco's Pier 50. Plans are to have container-based datacenters, like Sun's Project Blackbox [19365], located on the deck of an oil tanker. IDS will use below decks space for datacenter space, biodiesel to power the ship's generators, and waste heat to manage temperature onboard.

"These ships will live in port in their designated cities, and will rely on standard connectivity for power and network," Jamaca reported. Rather than relying on conventional real estate in decisions about datacenter expansion, administrators can now consider the availability of ships and dock space, which makes, at the moment, for a more flexible situation.

CEO Ken Choi and President Richard Naughton are at the helm of IDS. Choi is also CEO of Quantum Route, a company specializing in RFID technology, and Naughton is a former Navy admiral and superintendent of the Naval Academy, and formerly the head of the Navy's transportation command. He has also been CEO of Xenonics, which makes night vision products for the military.

If your interested in learning more about Data Centers in Strange Places, take a look at Data Center Knowledge's earlier report that includes stories on datacenters in missile bunkers, former military communications sites, caves in Japan and Missouri, a former chapel, old shopping malls, Siberia, oil baths, and fish tanks. [...read more...]

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