Photos: The world's weirdest datacentres
Summary: From Antarctic computing centres to former churches, we look at some of the most unusual datacentres around the world.
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One of the plans for the floating datacentre set out in Google's patent applicationPhoto: Google/ZDNet.com
Datacentres could be destined to leave dry land if search giant Google has its way.
In 2008, Google floated the idea of putting datacentres on platforms that would sit three to seven miles offshore, and won a patent for the idea in 2009.
Potential advantages range from the availability of wind and wave power and seawater cooling, to the absence of property taxes and building regulations.
Google envisions that the datacentres would be modular and constructed on land inside standard shipping containers before being hauled via truck to ships and then unloaded onto floating pontoons.
Photo: Louis Vest
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