Floating commercial data center Nautilus Data Technologies will begin work this year

Last year, Nautilus Data Technologies almost completed the creation of a full-fledged commercial data center. This would not be anything special if it were not for one “but” - the data center, according to the developers, should float. And not in some specialized reservoir, it will literally plow the expanses of the seas and oceans.

Called this data center Eli M, its capacity - 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 in terms of resource consumption data centers in the world. Of course, in the middle of the ocean, he will not be able to do the work for which he was intended - for this requires connecting 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 center is difficult for various reasons. This may be a banal lack of space for building or too high price of land. It will be possible to deploy a full-fledged floating DTS anywhere in the world in just six months, provided that there is enough water.
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The positive side of the project is that for this DC there is no need to build a separate pipeline and supply water. Everything works right on the spot: the system draws water directly from the ocean or the sea and after the most rough cleaning it uses it to cool the equipment. Used water is sent to the same place where it was taken from - to the ocean or the sea. Heating will be minimal, according to experts who evaluated the project, such a DC would not damage the region's ecosystem.


This is the basis for a new type of data center.

The estimated power 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 a DC, subject to the timely upgrading of equipment and infrastructure, can be very long - for decades. Cooling systems are located under the deck, and the network equipment and the rest of the periphery - 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 output, the power consumption of the data center will also be lower than in the standard data center. This is also possible thanks to the creation of a specialized software platform, which is intended primarily for floating data centers.



Eli M is the first floating data center, it can be called a pilot project. If all goes well, in the near future 9 more such "ships" will be released into the water. 7 is planned to be used for the provision of colocation services, and three are being prepared for the needs of specific customers. Now more than 30 large customers have expressed their interest in working with such data centers, 20 have already signed a contract with the company.

Eli M was planned to be launched last year, but the work was somewhat delayed, so the data center will start functioning in the new, 2017 year.

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