What's that there on the horizon? The Loch Ness monster? The Spanish Armada? No--it's a floating data center! As far fetched as it might sound, one company is betting its future on the floating data center, which would use one of the earth's most plentiful resources as a natural cooling agent. A new startup going by the name of International Data Security (IDS) has announced plans to launch a fleet of cargo ships housing off-shore data-centers. Allegedly, the ships would not only sell SAN and NAS storage services but would also offer business amenities like "private offices, overnight accommodations, and galley services." The ships will use sea water to cool the servers, totally eliminating the need for external cooling systems and reducing the total power consumption of the data centers by as much as 30 percent. According to a press release, IDS plans to launch as many as 50 of these ships worldwide and says that the first such vessel will appear at San Francisco's Pier 50 in April. While we've seen some green data centers before [1], I've got to say, this is probably the most far-out idea I've seen yet. What say you, landlubbing commenters: is this a brilliant idea or a mere pirate fantasy?

For the full scoop:
- see this Ars Technica article [2]