Free heating for Germans if they host a server in their home

Here’s an intriguing idea about cutting computer hosting costs:

Cloud&Heat is a cloud infrastructure company that has started distributing its servers to people who want to store them in exchange for free heat in their homes or offices. Since servers generate so much excess heat and cloud companies have to spend a lot to cool them, the idea to repurpose the waste heat isn’t new…

Customers pay to have a Cloud&Heat fire-proof cabinet installed in their homes or offices (the cost is comparable to installing a standard heating system). Then Cloud&Heat pays for the electricity and Internet service the cabinet needs and the owner gets to enjoy free heat and hot water. Plus Cloud&Heat has some clever fixes in place. If the servers do heavy data processing when no one needs the heat, the system stores hot water in a “buffering tank.”…

Security is a concern with these setups, because anyone’s data could be in anyone else’s house at a given time, but Cloud&Heat claims that since all of its data is encrypted and only its employees can open the cabinets that everyone’s information is safe. Still, it’s more reassuring to think that your data is stored in a remote server farm than in someone’s house.

I am m not sure about that last sentence.

Having lots of servers in one big secure location is more secure in one way, but it’s also a central point of failure.

Having the servers dispersed amongst many people’s individual homes makes each one individually less secure. Yet the very dispersal brings security itself – and it’s a regular pattern both inside and outside IT that dispersed systems end being the more resilient.