The 2014 the Microsoft was convinced that a sealed container at the bottom of the ocean could offer ways to improve the overall reliability of data centers, so in 2015 it tested the first underwater data center.
After working on its design and proving its viability, the company sank in 2018 a pod full of servers off the coast of the Orkney Islands in Scotland.
The North Island submarine data center was built by Naval Group and its subsidiary Naval Energies. Orkney-based Green Marine also participated, supporting Naval Group and Microsoft in the development, maintenance, monitoring and retrieval of the Microsoft-managed data center.
The data center was developed at the European Marine Energy Centre, which is a test site for wind turbines and inverters energyof waves.
In a blog post, the company detailed that it had recovered the submarine data center, which had sunk 117 meters into the ocean. The pod contained 864 servers along with related cooling infrastructure.
“The consistently cool sea below the surface enables energy efficient data centers. For example, they can utilize hydraulics insteadchangeof heat like those found in submarines", says the Publication on the blog.
After it was recovered, the container was cleaned and sent for sanitation controls. Microsoft said there were some downed servers and some cables, but Ben Cutler, a project manager in Microsoft's Special Projects research group who currently leads the underwater data center initiative known as Project Natick, claimed that the servers at underwater data center were eight times more reliable than those on land.
"The team assumes that the nitrogen atmosphere, which is less corrosive than oxygen, and the absence of people who can spoil something, are the main reasons that make the difference. "If the analysis turns out to be correct, the team may be able to transfer the findings to the ground data centers," he said on the blog.
Cutler said the team will now consider scenarios for using underwater data centers, such as using an underwater data center with an offshore wind farm. Other benefits may include eliminating the need for spare parts, he said, noting that the high reliability of the servers means that the few who had the problem could simply be turned off.
In addition, he said Project Natick showed that data centers could operate and maintain a cool temperature without using freshwater resources.