Data centers are expensive. Not only are they energy hogs, but they’re a serious drain on real estate budgets as well. For that reason, many companies have begun moving data centers offshore to cut costs. 

Google also has a plan for offshoring its data centers - quite literally.  The company recently filed a patent for an off-shore data center that uses ocean surface waves for power – as much as 40 MW is possible, according to the manufacturer of the wave-to-power machines. The patent application also describes a cooling system based on water-powered pumps and seawater to freshwater heat exchangers.

Sound out there? Well, again, they quite literally would be – the data centers would be located three to seven miles off the coast in 50 to 70 meters of water. The company recognizes that connectivity and reliability issues may still need to be solved, but they assure us they’re working on both of them.

The patent continues a trend for Google in modular data center research. The company received a patent last year for a “portable” data center that would fit in a shipping container. Google’s “data center in a box” would ideally be much more energy efficient than a standard anchored data center. Other companies, such as Sun Microsystems, Dell and IBM, have developed similar data center concepts. The idea is that these portable, shippable data center can supply additional capacity in facilities that are running out of real estate in existing data center facilities. According to Dell, they’re also used for providing backup computing gear for disaster recovery services.

All this may sound crazy, but it seems possible that in the not-too-distant future, real estate and energy may sink to the bottom of the list of priorities when considering data center strategies.