does the world's data need offsite backup? company wants to install ubuntu servers ON THE MOON to make copies of all the cute kitten videos!

Imagine a future where racks of computer servers hum quietly in darkness below the surface of the Moon.

Here is where some of the most important data is stored, to be left untouched for as long as can be. The idea sounds like something from science-fiction, but one startup that recently emerged from stealth is trying to turn it into a reality. Lonestar Data Holdings has a unique mission unlike any other cloud provider: to build datacenters on the Moon backing up the world's data.

"It's inconceivable to me that we are keeping our most precious assets, our knowledge and our data, on Earth, where we're setting off bombs and burning things," Christopher Stott, founder and CEO of Lonestar, told The Register. "We need to put our assets in place off our planet, where we can keep it safe."

"If we don't do this, what will happen to our data on Earth?," he asked. "The seed bank flooded due to effects of climate change. It's also susceptible to other forms of destruction like war or cyber attacks. We need to have somewhere we can keep our data safe." Lonestar has its sights set on the Moon.

The tiny proof-of-concept datacenter will be storing immutable data for Lonestar's early beta of its so-called Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Stott told us. "[We will be] performing upload and download tests (think refresh and restore of data), and performing edge processing tests of apps as well. It will be running Ubuntu." The company is still in the process of determining bandwidth rates, and has secured permissions to transmit data to the Moon and back to Earth in the S, X, and Ka-Bands in the radio spectrum.

[link to www.theregister.com (secure)]