WHY DOES MICROSOFT HAVE UNDERWATER DATA CENTERS?

WHY DOES MICROSOFT HAVE 

UNDERWATER DATA CENTERS?

718,105 views

Oct 25, 2021

Interesting Engineering

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As everything transfers to the cloud, we will require a growing number of data centers. These servers should ideally be as close to their users as possible for ultra-fast access. That’s why Microsoft has decided to try installing data centers on the ocean floor.

They are used to giving rapid cloud services to coastal towns while also saving energy, which is a key goal for the company. Microsoft’s first test of the concept was Project Natick. Back in 2018, the company submerged the Northern Isles, a purpose-built data center, in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Scotland’s Orkney Islands.

The location was ideal for this experiment due to its relatively cool waters and close access to a power grid that was sourced from solar and wind power.

The submerged data center was equipped with 12 racks, 864 servers, and 27.6 petabytes of storage, and also met Microsoft’s energy-saving and sustainability objectives.

How well did Project Natick go? What lessons did Microsoft learn from its implementation? How many more underwater data centers is the firm planning to build? What is the science, engineering, and technology that goes into creating one of these centers?

We answer all these questions and more in our video.

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