Microsoft Plans to Submerge Its Data Centers

Microsoft engineer Sean James came up with a “watershed idea” several years ago - submerging the company’s data centers to decrease energy consumption and lower costs.

He said that submerging the company’s data centers could solve several problems by introducing a new power source, greatly reducing cooling costs, and closing the distance to connected populations.

Illustration: MCKIBILLO

Indeed, the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft employee circulated a memo suggesting that the electricity that powers data centers could be generated from wave or tidal power. While it was greeted with some consternation overall by his colleagues, the staff of Microsoft Research NExT, a futuristic research group, was intrigued.

In 2015, the company installed a 38,000-pound, 10-foot x 7-foot container on the ocean floor for three months to test James’ notion – and there’s no stopping them now.

Why would it be easier to build datacenters undersea? “The equipment might be the same, but building codes, taxes, climate, workforce, electricity supply, and network connectivity are different everywhere. And those variables affect how long construction takes.”

The pods could be constructed in a factory, provisioned with servers, and made ready to ship anywhere in the world. The authors said, “Our goal for Natick is to be able to get data centers up and running, at coastal sites anywhere in the world, within 90 days from the decision to deploy.”

If that isn’t reason enough, consider the savings in cooling costs. Historically, such facilities have used mechanical cooling—think home air-conditioning on steroids….What’s more, these facilities can consume a lot of water. That’s because they often use evaporation to cool the air somewhat before blowing it over the servers.

Retrieving Project Natick vessel from the ocean.
Source: Microsoft

The heat from a submerged data center would not be harmful to the local marine environment. Any heat generated by a Natick pod would rapidly be mixed with cool water and carried away by the currents. The water just meters downstream of a Natick vessel would get a few thousandths of a degree warmer at most.

So, it may be anchors away for Microsoft data centers in the near future.

The team concludes, “The environmental impact would be very modest. That’s important, because the future is bound to see a lot more data centers get built. If we have our way, though, people won’t actually see many of them, because they’ll be doing their jobs deep underwater.”

Read more at: Energy Manager Today

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• Technology
• Business Strategy
• Data Management
• Energy Efficiency
• Energy-Water Nexus
• Energy Efficiency
• Marine Technologies
• Data