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Google may take its battle for global domination to the high seas with the launch of its own âcomputer navyâ.
The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.
In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: âComputing centres are located on a ship or ships, 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.â
The increasing number of data centres necessary to cope with the massive information flows generated on popular websites has prompted companies to look at radical ideas to reduce their running costs.
The supercomputers housed in the data centres, which can be the size of football pitches, use massive amounts of electricity to ensure they do not overheat. As a result the internet is not very green.
Data centres consumed 1 per cent of the worldâs electricity in 2005. By 2020 the carbon footprint of the computers that run the internet will be larger than that of air travel, a recent study by McKinsey, a consultancy firm, and the Uptime Institute, a think tank, predicted.
In an attempt to address the problem, Microsoft has investigated building a data centre in the cold climes of Siberia, while in Japan the technology firm Sun Microsystems plans to send its computers down an abandoned coal mine, using water from the ground as a coolant. Sun said it could save $9 million (£5 million) of electricity costs a year and use half the power the data centre would have required if it was at ground level.
Technology experts said Googleâs âcomputer navyâ was an unexpected but clever solution. Rich Miller, the author of the datacentreknowledge.com blog, said: âItâs really innovative, outside-the-box thinking.â
Google refused to say how soon its barges could set sail. The company said: âWe file patent applications on a variety of ideas. Some of those ideas later mature into real products, services or infrastructure, some donât.â
Concerns have been raised about whether the barges could withstand an event such as a hurricane. Mr Miller said: âThe huge question raised by this proposal is how to keep the barges safe.â
The company is considering deploying the supercomputers necessary to operate its internet search engines on barges anchored up to seven miles (11km) offshore.
In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: âComputing centres are located on a ship or ships, 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.â
The increasing number of data centres necessary to cope with the massive information flows generated on popular websites has prompted companies to look at radical ideas to reduce their running costs.
The supercomputers housed in the data centres, which can be the size of football pitches, use massive amounts of electricity to ensure they do not overheat. As a result the internet is not very green.
Data centres consumed 1 per cent of the worldâs electricity in 2005. By 2020 the carbon footprint of the computers that run the internet will be larger than that of air travel, a recent study by McKinsey, a consultancy firm, and the Uptime Institute, a think tank, predicted.
In an attempt to address the problem, Microsoft has investigated building a data centre in the cold climes of Siberia, while in Japan the technology firm Sun Microsystems plans to send its computers down an abandoned coal mine, using water from the ground as a coolant. Sun said it could save $9 million (£5 million) of electricity costs a year and use half the power the data centre would have required if it was at ground level.
Technology experts said Googleâs âcomputer navyâ was an unexpected but clever solution. Rich Miller, the author of the datacentreknowledge.com blog, said: âItâs really innovative, outside-the-box thinking.â
Google refused to say how soon its barges could set sail. The company said: âWe file patent applications on a variety of ideas. Some of those ideas later mature into real products, services or infrastructure, some donât.â
Concerns have been raised about whether the barges could withstand an event such as a hurricane. Mr Miller said: âThe huge question raised by this proposal is how to keep the barges safe.â