Microsoft’s underwater data center raises a fierce hit from the ocean

Microsoft’s underwater data center has risen again underwaterI am Depth of sea, company Announced on Monday, And it remains remarkably intact except that it is covered in maritime fraud.

Microsoft immersed data center 117 feet under water On the beach Orkney Islands, Scotland In 2018 a resembles a large, airtight fuel tank. After two years at sea, it is now blanketed in algae, barnacles and candelabra-sized sea anemones. But Spencer Fowers, a Microsoft Special Projects researcher, said in the announcement that the company was “very impressed” by the “hardening of ocean growth”.

Inside, 864 servers with a total of 27.6 petabytes of storage and cooling infrastructure brave elements In Atmospheric Gas Atmosphere – Microsoft Specified Conditions European Marine Energy Center Wave currents of nine miles per hour at the test site and 60 feet of waves during storms. In fact, Microsoft claimed that equipment is better than land-based systems. Project Nation leader Ben Cutler said in a blog post The North Islands experienced failure rates only one-eighth higher than expected at a traditional data center, and it ran “well” with 100 percent wind and solar power at the region’s energy stage.

This proves the hypothesis of the seaSite Server farms are desirable for reverse environments Gear can be damaged by corrosion from oxygen and moisture, constant temperature changes and physical movement during maintenance. Placing data centers underwater provides a closer space for customers and makes cooling much easier, And Microsoft previously suggested that they could be Powered by Tidal Generators. The units are also small and can be easily measured Great functions.

Although Microsoft wrote in a Microsoft blog post that servers in light-out datacenters have already been replaced twice a decade, an obvious issue is that repair on the spot is not possible. Company Increased reliability of underwater servers is “Some that initially failed are simply taken offline. “

The Judgment has been announced The environmental impact of underwater data centers in 2018 is not clear; A unit may have a necklaceigiImpact on locals Temperature, but the masses in them can have significant effects on the seal.

“The transfer of data storage systems to the ocean could have significant benefits for companies such as Microsoft, and the effects of any structure placed in the marine environment, especially one that generates significant heat locally, should be explored,” Gordon Watson of the University of Maritime Ecology at the University of Portsmouth said in the ruling. Any site should be assessed for environmental impact, ”he said.ISticking something in the ocean and retrieving it after five years (at least in countries where they have advanced maritime planning laws) is not as easy. ”

There is a problem with reducing revenue. University of Leeds Beckett Colin Pattinson, Dean, School of Computing, Creative Technologies and Engineering Told Wired Although underwater data centers are “worth trying” in 2018, performance gains to reduce power demand are declining over time.

“What we’re trying to do now effectively is squeeze even more savings from the same basic technology,” Pattinson told Wired.. “We can reduce the rate of increase, but there will still be an increase in the energy demands generated by data centers due to the amount of data we generate.”

The next phase of the project pulse will be easily demonstrated Disposal and recycling.

“We are now trying to use what we have done without realizing the need to go and prove some more,” Cutler said in a statement.. “It simply came to our notice then. It is an important construction block to use if the NATO company is suitable. ”