A STARTUP is planning to build floating data centres on knackered cargo ships.

San Francisco Bay Area company International Data Security (IDS) envisions it will have up to 50 decommissioned container ships housing data server farms, moored in various ports around the world including 22 in North American cities.

IDS believes using cargo ships will give it flexibility and enable expansion limited only by the availability of ships and port space instead of real estate constraints.

Its first location will be available at Pier 50 in San Francisco starting in April and it already has, ahem, anchor tenants signed, a source close to the company said.

Shipboard cargo spaces will be built out as data center floors and deck space will be used to stack modular data centers in standard shipping containers. The ships will connect to onshore power and network links, fuel backup power generators with biodiesel and reuse equipment waste heat to manage onboard temperatures.

IDS President Richard Naughton is a former Navy admiral who commanded the Transportation Command and the US Naval Academy. µ

L'INQ
Data Center Knowledge