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Microsoft Lauds Underwater Datacenter Test
Sparked by an idea first floated in 2014, Microsoft's two-year test of an underwater datacenter proof of concept has been deemed a success, providing insights about reliability, practicality and energy sustainability that may improve terrestrial datacenters.
Project Natick is described as a research project to determine the feasibility of subsea datacenters powered by offshore renewable energy. It involved sinking a container-sized, sealed, metal datacenter module in the North Sea in the spring of 2018, which was raised to the surface on July 9.
The idea was to avoid common datacenter problems such as workers jostling equipment, corrosion, temperature fluctuations and so on.
With only "a handful" of failed servers and related cables found, researchers believe that servers in underwater datacenters might be eight times more reliable than on-land counterparts, Microsoft said in a Sept. 14 article on its news site titled "Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably."
[Click on image for larger view.] Project Natick Facts & Figures (source: Microsoft).
Another potential benefit is many more location possibilities that could improve computing, as Microsoft noted, "More than half the world's population lives within 120 miles of the coast. By putting datacenters underwater near coastal cities, data would have a short distance to travel, leading to fast and smooth web surfing, video streaming and game playing."
During the proof-of-concept test, the datacenter was actually put to practical use to perform COVID-19 research, specifically for Folding at Home and World Community Grid.
The project's web site says planned length of operation without maintenance could be up to five years.
"We are now at the point of trying to harness what we have done as opposed to feeling the need to go and prove out some more," the Microsoft News article quoted project lead Ben Cutler as saying. "We have done what we need to do. Natick is a key building block for the company to use if it is appropriate."
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David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.