Project Natick: Microsoft Is Locating Servers In The Ocean

This Is Why Microsoft Is Putting Data Servers In the Ocean

20,00 Servers Under the Sea?

Mary Beth Griggs | February 1, 2016

Sticking a computer underwater isn't a great idea. (PSA: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!) But if you happen to be Microsoft, sticking a whole bunch of computer servers under the sea might just be a brilliant idea.
See, data centers, or buildings where all of the internet is processed use a ton of energy. No, really. In the United States alone, they annually suck up the equivalent of the energy output of 34 coal-fired power plants. A lot of that energy goes to powering the actual servers, but almost half of it goes to keeping the servers nice and cool, so they don't overheat and crash, sending us all into the apocalypse keeping parts of the internet offline for a while.

Introducing Microsoft Project Natick, a Microsoft research project to manufacture and operate an underwater datacenter. The initial experimental prototype vessel, christened the Leona Philpot after a popular Xbox game character, was operated on the seafloor approximately one kilometer off the Pacific coast of the United States from August to November of 2015. Project Natick reflects Microsoft’s ongoing quest for cloud datacenter solutions that offer rapid provisioning, lower costs, high responsiveness, and are more environmentally sustainable. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2oJw1a_qEM

Source: http://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-research-project-puts-cloud-in-ocean-for-the-first-time/

<more at http://www.popsci.com/microsoft-is-putting-data-servers-in-cool-new-place-ocean; related links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2oJw1a_qEM (+Video) (Microsoft's underwater datacenter: Project Natick. Published February 1, 2016) and http://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-research-project-puts-cloud-in-ocean-for-the-first-time/ (Microsoft research project puts cloud in ocean for the first time. February 1, 2016)>