This week technology followers including Slashdot and Data Center Knowledge have been reporting yet another move by the search, SaaS, storage and email giant Google that may have many wondering whether the air inside Googleplex is too thin or just filled with a special creativity element.

Google has reportedly filled a patent application for the development of offshore data centers being dubbed the “Google Navy.”  This discovery has raised a few eyebrows and generated some discussion along with questions:  What is an off-shore data center?  Is it tethered like many casinos?  Who will protect them?  Where will they be located?  How will they connect to the land loving networks?  Will this too fall short like their shipping container concept or thrive using it?

Only time will tell.  However, while not he first to conceive the concept of a floating data center, they may be the first with the deep enough pockets to bring the concept to a fully deployed non-tethered conclusion.  The concept of placing your data permanently in the water might sound a little counterproductive, it certainly has some truly green and finical merits, if not incentives.

One of the more obvious is the lack of required capital to acquire the land and develop the infrastructure to build and maintain their land based data centers.  In addition, the cost savings in land and other related taxes alone must have the pencil pushers excited.  Finally, simply finding the adequate space needed for the big players in the data center build-out race must be getting more difficult as the data centers get larger and larger, not to mention the resources and infrastructure required to support the data giants.

Putting the financial benefits aside, there are also other green reasons that this seemingly wacky plan may just pay off for Google.  Google is reportedly looking at both cooling and powering the floating centers using green technology that harvests the natural wave motion of their floating foundations and converting that energy into usable and unlimited, re spendable resources.  By placing your data on top of easily harnessed energy resources, Google can power and cool its center without using more costly, dirty and earth destroying traditional sources.

So, perhaps the concept of floating data centers may seem a little bit of a stretch, so too did the idea of indexing the infant internet 10 years ago when two MIT students tried to conveince us otherwise.