Data centers move into space
 

I'm on the fence regarding where I stand on this one. There are a lot of benefits that could come from this approach.

But, do we really want to start circling the Earth with data centers?

Data centers move into space to mitigate power consumption and pollution

I think it’s a stupid idea.

Whats the life of a piece of data center hardware? 2 years? Then what? Kick it off into space?

..then aliens will hack our data! :D

Invariably stuff fails and needs to be replaced by someone on-site. That's going to be an expensive technician dispatch. And they aren't always the brightest folks.
I guess space would help with the whole cooling issue.
I assume they know how t to avoid "tin whiskers" by now.
Then there's the latency and bandwidth issues.
It seems like a bad idea.

I don't and will not ever put any of my data "on the cloud" as it all can be hacked. The only exception is we do use Microsoft One Drive to deliver customer projects to our customers. We upload the files that only are useful to the client, and they download them. Then we delete the files. Not many people would what an aerial photo of someone else's property, and it is all only shared with our client.

Did a small stint in a server farm. There's a lot of traffic and issues that often take a human to fix.

Yes, depending on DC customer mix there can be constant maintenance/upgrades/changing network routing/etc./etc. Last I checked DCs consume about 1-2% of total electrical in the US. Not sure re. Europe. Many of the big DCs have very good PUEs - under 1.2. This means the energy used for cooling is pretty low. Putting servers underwater at Avila Beach is better as MS was looking at. Still IMO - not a great idea.

It would be interesting to see the storage devices. I can't imagine they are spinning hard drives. It almost has to be all SSD drives for weight and throughput. Just guessing. Every pound is tons of money to get to space.

Again I have to assume they have done the cost estimates. Putting the data farms in cooler climates even in remote northern areas or at high altitude would be cheaper than space. I don't see how it can be a viable thing unless it the military or government with unlimited budgets.

The ISS has huge electrical demands to keep the heating and cooling at comfortable levels. The heat from the sun will require shading, and in the shadow of earth, some heat to keep the temps at a normal operating level.

Should the world not be putting more effort into fixing some the industrial mess we've caused here at home before making more mess beyond our little planet?

"Dear Mr Smith,

We are sorry to inform you but all of your data was lost when our data center was hit by space junk (we suspect it was either a jettisoned part from a rocket booster or a small marble size rock from a recent asteroid). The entire system was a total loss. We hope you are able to retrieve your information from an alternate backup.

Best Wishes,

Jetsons Space Data Center

Whenever I see how much garbage we have put into low earth orbit that we have no practical way to get rid of, it makes me ill. We are tracking more than 30,000 pieces that we can see from earth, it’s estimated there are 200,000 or 300,000 pieces bigger than 1 cm and perhaps a million more smaller than that. As far as I know, they have to alter the space station orbit periodically to avoid some of it.

Is tin still used as a final coat?

This... The last thing we need is more space junk circling our planet.

Skynet indeed.