INSIDE THE DATA BARGE: Silicon Valley Meets Maritime in the Making of NDT’s Barge-based Data Center

Nautilus Data Technologies (NDT) and Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) provide an interesting new twist to the maritime digitalization discussion, with the design, manufacture and delivery of an innovative 7MW data center housed on a refurbished 240-ft. deck barge. Jim Connaughton, CEO, NDT & Michael Complita, PE – VP Strategic Expansion, EBDG, discuss the strategic and environmental advantages as well as the future of housing massive computer banks on barges.

When one says “Silicon Valley”, the first image to come to mind likely is not a barge. In fact, arguably, a barge would not make the “Top 100,000”.
Jim Connaughton and NDT are aiming to change that, as it teamed Elliott Bay Design Group, Lind Marine, Veolia and the Port of Stockton to refurbish and deliver a data center on the water, a concept that NDT says offers many intriguing strategic and environmental advantages that could make barge-based data centers the wave of the future.

“Data centers are now new mission-critical essential infrastructure, just like power plants, just like shipping and ports, just like water treatment facilities,” said Connaughton. “With our partners at Elliott Bay Design Group we’ve married the best of maritime technology and adapted that for use in the data center environment to produce a data center that is among the highest performing in the world, the most energy efficient in the world, and critically, super sustainable. Now, when you put those three things together, the fourth feature is flexibility and mobility, similar to other forms of infrastructure such as floating power plants, floating water treatment facilities or floating offshore housing facilities.”

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