Underwater Data Center

server colocation or archival center

Cloud based services, which run from large server farms, are an ever growing industry. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM are some of the top players with a combined annual revenue of almost $100 billion.

why underwater?

Real estate, operational costs, and security risks are all large factors todays businesses deal with. Moving a server farm underwater addresses all of these factors and adds value to the bottom line. With most of the earth covered by water, the opportunites for new, unexplored real estate are never ending. This is not only isolated to the oceans, but to lakes or any body of water. Liquid is used to cool servers and high end computers already and using the surrounding enviornment, and underwater structure can drastically cut down cooling costs. Security is also greatly enhanced due to location and difficulties of entrance and access.

Underwater server farms make sense in many ways and are a wise investment in todays technology age.

Current costs analysis of server storage on-land, and how it would be effected in an underwater enviornment.

Cooling

A conservative price of $750 per month* is what is currently experienced for a 500 square foot data center on land. Due to water temperatures, cooling costs can be drastically cut by using the enviornment surrounding the habitat.

Generator

In order to maintain optimal uptime, a generator is used as an instant failover when there are power outages. This comes at an average cost of $500 per month*. An underwater habitat is not attached to any power grid and therefore not prone to some of the same problems that land based eviornments may face. Power redundnancy is mandatory, but may be able to come in at a cost savings.

Battery/Power

Power consumption may vary depending upon how many servers, and what type of servers are running in the location, but a average price of $2500 per month* has been found. The ability to generate clean enegery from the ocean can drastically cut down on power costs.

UPS

In any technology enviornment an UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) not only secures devices from short power outages, but also from power surges, brown outs, etc. Upkeep for monitoring, batter replacement, etc. is about $750 per month*. Even in the most ideal of situations, this is an area that should not be skimped upon or not utilized.

Security

Cameras, locks, keypads, etc. all are utiltized for a secure data center. An extremely conservative average of $119 per month* may be earmarked for this. Underwater enhances all of these things as it is difficult to get the location, without using the proper entrance the infromation inside will be destroyed or damaged, different security measures not available on land may also be implemented.

Server

Server costs will vary by quanitity and what is needed.

* average maintenance costs only, build-out of all systems and sub-systems equal to a minimum of $1 million on average for a location of this size


time frame
1-5 years