Things looked pretty bleak in Iceland a year or so ago. Declaring national bankruptcy is never high on a country’s list of priorities. But BBC News reports that the beleaguered country is attempting to make a comeback—as the nexus of all the world’s computer servers. In a way, it’s the perfect place to keep a ton of servers that require huge amounts of energy to be kept running, and cool. From the report:
In Iceland, with its year round cool climate and chilly fresh water, just a fraction of this energy for cooling [the servers] is needed. It means big savings.
Just outside Reykjavik, work is well advanced on the first site which its owners hope will spark a server cold rush.
In around a year – if all goes according to plan – the first companies will start leasing space in this data centre.
And if this proves successful more sites are planned.
And with its wealth of geothermal (and therefor carbon-footprint-free) power, the country stands to make a substantial global impact, particularly since all those servers mean a constant increase in CO2 production. As one expert put it:
“[I]f a large internet media company operating thousands and thousands of servers relocated its servers to Iceland, that company would save greater than half a million metric tons of carbon annually.”
Granted, now all they have to do is lay all that fiber optic cable. No getting around the series of tubes!
Related Content:
Discoblog: How To Build A Computer Inside a Deceased Beaver
Discoblog: Man Boots Memories From Brain Straight to Computer
October 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hello,
There are actually multiple fiber optic paths from Iceland to Europe and the U.S. Please take a look at the network routing map found at http://www.verneglobal.com.
Best Regards,
Lisa Rhodes
VP Marketing
Verne Global
October 13th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
[...] the original here: Iceland to Save All Computer Servers (and the World)? | Discoblog … Share and [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
[...] rest is here: Iceland to Save All Computer Servers (and the World)? Tags: [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
You still have to power the servers. Take this as another opportunity, geothermal power..
October 13th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Iceland never stated bankruptcy, only the private run banks which the government has taken over.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Keep supporting your special rights women (namely MS glass ceiling doesn’t exist lady at the top of your gov). You will dip again, and so will the West in general. Get ready for a life changing CHANGE baby boomers. Your time has come. Western economies are completely fake.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:06 am
[...] secondly, Iceland is building a data center hoping to use the cool climate and abundant geo-thermal power reserves to reduce carbon emissions [...]