Microsoft Natick Data centers under water

2020: Completion of testing of underwater data center

In the middle of September, 2020 Microsoft announced completion of testing of underwater data center. The company came to a conclusion that such object is about eight times more reliable than the traditional DPC placed on the earth.

As noted in Microsoft, on a surface there is a set of factors which can lead to inactivation of the equipment of a data processing center. Among them — oxygen in air, humidity, temperature drops and a human factor when replacing components. In a case with underwater DPC to prevent corrosion, the container with the equipment was filled with the drained nitrogen.

Microsoft completed tests of underwater data center - it was 8 times more reliable than land

Affirms that in the waterproof capsule with a control system of temperature arises much less problems. The idea consists in fast deployment of the similar centers near coasts, near areas where they are necessary.

The size of data center does not exceed dimensions of a standard container therefore just to transport it from place to place. In the hermetic capsule 12 racks on which 864 servers are mounted were placed. Water cooling is brought to each server, it passes through tubes near each device, explained in the company.

Besides, experts noted the increased energy efficiency of underwater data centers. Their location allows to save energy on artificial cooling of servers. It is especially important for regions with weak power infrastructure. For example, on the Orkney Islands (Scotland) renewable energy sources — wind and solar which are not enough for land DPC are generally used. Authors of the project added that even at a light breeze the power plants developing thanks to it will be able to feed underwater data centers in the necessary volume.^[1]

2018

Microsoft about advantages of data centers under water

In June, 2018 Microsoft placed data center under water and told about advantages of new technology.

According to the head of "New experiments" of Peter Lee Microsoft, more than a half of people on the planet there live at distance about 120 miles (193 km) from the coast. Placing data centers in reservoirs near coastal localities, it is possible to achieve high-speed data exchange that in turn will provide to the population fast Internet access, increasing comfort in work with stream to services and games.

In an interview to the TechCrunch edition Ben Cutler from division of Microsoft Research told that the cloud strategy of the company is focused on placement of data processing centers near the main population centers long ago. Thanks to the fact that big wind power stations are capable to provide renewable energy, and temperature under water is rather low, the Natick project can bring benefit.

Microsoft wants to place data centers under water

In Microsoft we spent a huge number of energy, time and, obviously, money for cloud computing — Katler says answering a question of the journalist of how the idea to send DPCs under water was born. — Therefore we always look for new methods which we can develop. This idea was thrown at first by one of our employees who worked on the submarine of navy of the USA. He knew something about this technology and that it can be applied to data centers.

Separate modules of underwater DPC can be integrated for creation of a server farm of high power. Such server farm can be placed near the coast of the large megalopolis, providing the minimum delays when providing access to cloud services to a large number of the users living and working nearby.

It will be cheaper, than deployment of DPC on the land within such large city. Besides, the underwater server farm has such important line as mobility: in need of it it will be possible to move to the necessary region quickly enough.

The project prepared by engineers of Microsoft assumes equipment of underwater DPCs turbines which can be used for electricity production using mechanical energy of ocean waves and currents.

One of key advantages of underwater data center is an opportunity to cut down expenses due to use of water for the organization of power supply and cooling of servers and ancillary equipment in computing volume. Such approach also allows to avoid purchase costs and construction of the real estate and the subsequent payment of the property tax.

According to Ben Katler, Microsoft began to experiment with placement of DPC at a water depth in 2013, but already then bright perspectives of this project clearly were visible. The company submerged in the Pacific Ocean a hermetic container with several servers. He heated water around itself(himself) only on several thousand degrees Celsius and published insignificant noise. Underwater life quickly got used to an alien object: the area began to become populated around it by crabs, octopuses and other organisms.

Minus of underwater data centers is the impossibility to repair them and to update. Microsoft decided to make so that the equipment worked as long as possible without service. For this purpose, in particular, the container with servers was decided to be filled with nitrogen, for example, to prevent corrosion development.

Katler noted that any nonconventional advanced technologies do not involve in the Natick project. There are no special servers and even submarine cables — a power supply of infrastructure of data center is provided by the wind power plant located nearby on the land. And small power — about 0.25 MW is required.^[2]

Start of data center under water

In June, 2018 Microsoft started as the company claims, the first-ever data center under water. In the big capsule more than 800 servers with storage systems in total capacitance of 27.5 PBytes were placed. It will be enough for information processing of 1000 high-performance computers or storage about 5 million high-quality movies.

The underwater data center which is externally similar to a container for cargo transportation was brought together in France and delivered to the northern coast of Scotland. Then it by the ship was transported on 200 km from the coast and lowered on an ocean floor near the Orkney Islands.

The data center of Microsoft is lowered under water

The same technology is applied to cooling of a computer hardware that is applied at design of submarines. Sea water on pipes arrives to radiators which cool servers. For land data centers cooling is one of the greatest costs. It is supposed that such approach will allow to increase considerably access rate to Microsoft services and clients of the company.

Within the project servers will be at the bottom of the sea till 2023. They will be fed by the power submarine cable and also renewable energy sources  from the Orkney Islands. By means of a special cable the Internet will be connected to DPC.  In case of successful testing of Microsoft can expand the number of the data centers placed under water.

Microsoft says that one of main advantages of placement of data centers on a seabed — an opportunity to build them in close proximity to renewable power sources and large coastal localities where there lives more than a half of the population of the earth.^[3]

Artificial intelligence technologies depend on clouds today. If all data are in limits of one transit section of the Internet, it will be profitable to both producers, and consumers of digital products — the corporate vice president of division    of Microsoft AI and Research, the head      of the New Experiences and Technologies (NExT) group Peter Li noted.

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