Microsoft has sunk a data center into the ocean

Microsoft has submerged an experimental data center into the ocean floor of the Northern Isles near Scotland.

The undersea data center is part of the technology giant’s Project Natick initiative intended to research more energy-efficient data centers. Microsoft said that it dropped the portable data center, dubbed the Northern Isles, into the sea last Friday and it’s now online and performing an unspecified amount of computing tasks.

Microsoft reported that its first Project Natick test was intended to evaluate the feasibility of operating an undersea data center, while its second test is to assess the feasibility of doing so the “concept is logistically, environmentally and economically practical.”

Nearly every major tech company by that point recognized the tremendous influence of their data centers on their environmental footprint. As cooling servers had been traditionally done, such cooling required a great deal of water and energy, not to mention the powering of the servers themselves, which were multiplying steadily as cloud computing grew.

In the last decades, advanced computing companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft have stepped up to the plate and started designing more sustainable data centers. They set up these power facilities in locations with cooler climate conditions to take advantage of outdoor cooling.

The company built an underwater data center inspired by submarines because they’re built to withstand the rigors of the sea. The idea was to have a test vessel that wouldn’t be very far offshore so that it could hook into the electrical grid, but in future versions, the computing would be fully powered by the water — from the energy of the waves or tides. The data center would also be cooled by the surrounding cold water at the bottom of the ocean, cutting out that energy demand.

The Northern Isles data center contains some 12 racks and 864 computers. Microsoft staff will be monitoring the data center for the next 12 months to observe how effectively it is submerged underwater. The hope is for the test that will take place on the Northern Islands to go well and that in the future Microsoft may be able to deploy skyscrapers much like these in cities worldwide.

“We know if we can put something in here and it survives, we are good for just about any place we want to go,” Microsoft Project Natick chief Ben Cutler said in a statement.

The experiment will span a five-year span, during which no modifications or repairs will be made to the technology in the ship of any malfunctions. We’ll see here whether the new system has any effects on marine life; Microsoft has cited Phase One as a success story and reported that its noise levels and water temperature next to it will be insignificant.

Necessary monitoring will be undertaken to observe the natural environment as it is changing. It could be that underwater data centers for example artificial reefs can be constructed to enhance marine habitats and biodiversity. It has already been done using a number of sunken vessels.

Source: technative.io
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