In 2018, Microsoft worked on a research project — Project Natick — to test the viability of subsea data centres that will be powered by offshore renewable energy. After two successful years, the 40-foot-long, 12 rack, self-contained underwater data centre was retrieved from the North Sea for analysis.
With the successful deployment of this project, the concept of underwater data centres is no longer just a possibility.
Microsoft Sets The Stepping Stone
Project Natick proved that in addition to providing cooling efficiency, it is possible to implement environmentally-friendly and sustainable power solutions for data centres. Microsoft is now working on the second phase of the research with Project Natick Phase 2, where the aim is to demonstrate the capability of manufacturing it at production scale.
Microsoft’s Project Natick Plan. Source: Dgtl Infra
Since data centres have a high energy consumption for normal functioning, with GPUs demanding even more, underwater data centres provide respite to the energy problem to a large extent. The ocean bed being cooler helps nullify the heat produced by the servers, thereby providing natural cooling at zero cost, and the heat is dissipated into the surrounding environment.
Furthermore, it even addresses the problems of low-latency connectivity issues, caused by the long distance between location source and destination.
While the results of the ambitious project are promising, the viability of underwater data centres still looms large.
All Is Not Easy Underwater
One of the biggest challenges to having underwater data centres is the tricky hardware maintenance. If any kind of problem arises in the server, sending a person to fix it or even lifting up the data centre to the surface is a burdensome task. Robotics could play an important part here to probably fix the issues, but, until then, human dependence will continue.
Furthermore, network connectivity, which is best achieved via underwater network cables, carry huge expenses, with costs that can go as high as $400 per foot.
While underwater data centres are considered an environmentally sustainable solution compared to land data centres, there are still a number of unanswered questions in terms of understanding how the oceans would react in the long run.
Questions about the amount of heat emitted and its effect on the ocean bed and marine life when a number of data centres operate underwater, is still unknown. Furthermore, the question on the disposal mode for these data centres after they fail or outlive their usefulness, remains unresolved.
Interestingly, power used for running these data centres can be obtained from renewable sources — something big tech companies are actively working towards.
Big Tech’s Chase Sustainable Tech
With big tech companies actively working on sustainable solutions for the longer run, the shift towards sustainable options for running data centres too is no surprise.
Microsoft’s choice of the Orkney Islands for the Northern Isles deployment by the Project Natick team was influenced by the fact that the region’s grid is entirely powered by wind, solar energy, and emerging green energy technologies that are under development by the European Marine Energy Centre.
They are even looking for ways to have an underwater datacenter with an offshore wind farm in close proximity. Microsoft’s attempt to use renewable energy for powering their projects is not new.
Recently, the company was in news for looking to hire a program manager specialised in nuclear technology for heading their small modular reactors and microreactor energy systems, thereby exploring the possibility of harnessing nuclear energy to fuel its data centres. Furthermore, other Big tech billionaires such as Sam Altman, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have actively invested in this space.
Exploration of underwater data centres is slowly gaining steam. Last year, Subsea Cloud announced three underwater data centre projects, where it will not be using pressure vessels, unlike Microsoft. Instead, it would be a conventional shipping container with pressure equalised on both sides.
Earlier this year, Highlander in China built the first commercial underwater data centre near Hainan Island in China, and is looking to find global customers. With China also experimenting with the same, it is likely that it will become a global chase.
