Gallery: Drones, Caves, and Toilets: When Data Centers Go Rogue

  • Micro Data Center
    01

    micro-data-center

    *AOL has dropped its "Micro Data Center" into a field behind its Virginia headquarters. But the online outfit wants to put the thing ... everywhere. Image: AOL*
  • eBay containers
    02

    ebay-containers

    *eBay cooks its data center modules in the Arizona sun. Image: Green Grid*
  • interxionjpg
    03

    interxionjpg

    *London's Interxion has built sleeping pods into a data center that will help drive the Olympics. Keeping a data center going is a fulltime job -- especially when the Games arrive. Photo: Interxion*
  • Bahnhof
    roger schederin
    04

    bahnhof

    *Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks is hosted in a Bahnhof data center deep inside a bunker carved into the White Mountains of Sweden. Image: Bahnhof*
  • Leafdal Mine
    05

    leafdal-mine

    *Leafdal Mine claims it's one of the world's most efficient datacenters. (Image: Lefdal/YouTube Screengrab)*
  • Hamina Mill Building
    06

    hamina-mill-building

    *To build its data center on the southern coast of Finland, Google reincarnated a dead paper mill. Image: Google*
  • toilet
    07

    toilet

    *In Georgia, Google cools its data center with recycled toilet water. (Image: epSos.de/Flickr)*
  • Google Floating Data Center
    08

    google-floating-data-center-2

    *Google owns a patent on a kind of data-center navy. Image: Google Patent US7525207*
  • Blueseed
    09

    blueseed

    *Blueseed – one of Peter Thiel's myriad investments – envisions a floating IT fortress immune from U.S. immigration law. Image: Blueseed*
  • Drones
    10

    drones

    *Rogue file-sharing site The Pirate Bay plans to put its servers on flying drones so that law enforcement can't shut them down without shooting them down. (Image: Ars Electronica/Flickr)*
  • Outer Space
    11

    outer-space

    *Server Sky wants to put a data center in spaaaaace! Image: id-iom/Flickr*
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