January 4, 2017 at 23:52Nautilus Data Technologies Floating Commercial Data Center Launches This Year
Company Nautilus Data Technologies last year almost finished creating a full-fledged commercial data center. This would not be anything special if it were not for one “but” - the data center, as conceived by the developers, should float. And not in some specialized reservoir, it will literally plow the expanses of the seas and oceans.
They called this data center Eli M, its capacity is up to 800 racks. According to representatives of the company that created this data center, it will be used to provide colocation services. The developers believe that this is one of the most balanced data centers in the world in terms of resource consumption. Of course, in the middle of the ocean he will not be able to carry out the work for which he is intended - because for this you need to connect to the network infrastructure. But in the port of a large city, where there is all the necessary infrastructure - completely.
First of all, such a data center will be used in regions where the construction of full-fledged data centers is difficult for various reasons. This may be a banal lack of space for development or too high a price for land. It will be possible to deploy a full-fledged floating DC anywhere in the world in just six months, provided that there is enough water.
The positive side of the project is that for this DC does not need to build a separate pipeline and supply water. Everything works right on the spot: the system draws water directly from the ocean or sea and, after the most rough cleaning, uses it to cool equipment. The used water goes to the same place from which it was taken - to the ocean or sea. Heating will be minimal, according to experts who evaluated the project, such a DC will not harm the ecosystem of the region.
This is how the basis for a new type of data center looks like.
The calculated capacity of the data center is approximately 8 MW (with a capacity of 800 server racks, as mentioned above). The basis for it is a military barge, restored at the shipyard. The service life of the DC, subject to timely modernization of equipment and infrastructure, can be very long - tens of years. Cooling systems are located below the deck, and network equipment and all other peripherals are located on the deck in a special superstructure.
As a result of the fact that water will not need to be pumped from somewhere far away, and then also displayed, the energy consumption of the data center will also be lower than in a standard data center. This is also possible thanks to the creation of a specialized software platform, which is intended, first of all, for floating data centers.
Eli M is the first floating data center, it can be called a pilot project. If everything goes well, in the near future another 9 such “ships” will be launched. 7 is planned to be used to provide colocation services, and three are prepared for the needs of specific customers. Now more than 30 large customers have shown their interest in working with such data centers, 20 have already signed a contract with the company.
It was planned to launch Eli M last year, but the work was somewhat delayed, so the data center will start functioning in the new year 2017.
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