Microsoft is testing underwater Data Centers

[AlTech]

Microsoft is testing out underwater data centers.

 

Currently they have a problem. 1 is the cost of air conditioning and 2 is the cost of electricity. Microsoft is trying out the underwater data centers since it fixes both these problems with being underwater (no cooling required) and it will generate some of it's own electricity using turbines and the ocean's tide.

 

Microsoft has tested a prototype of a self-contained data center that can operate hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean, eliminating one of the technology industry’s most expensive problems: the air conditioning bill.

Today’s data centers, which power everything from streaming video to social networking and email, contain thousands of computer servers generating lots of heat. When there is too much heat, the servers crash.

Putting the gear under cold ocean water could fix the problem. It may also answer the exponentially growing energy demands of the computing world because Microsoft is considering pairing the system with a turbine that generates electricity from ocean tides.

The effort, code-named Project Natick, might lead to strands of giant steel tubes linked by fiber optic cables placed on the seafloor. Another possibility would suspend containers shaped like jelly beans beneath the surface to capture the ocean current with turbines that generate electricity.

 

Leave a comment below!

 

personally this is really damn cool ( ha ha , I know i'm not very good at puns or making jokes)

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/technology/microsoft-plumbs-oceans-depths-to-test-underwater-data-center.html?_r=0

[Kherm]

Holy shit, that is certainly something.

[Omon_Ra]

Whole-room watercooling: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Edition.

I've seen some underwater turbine generator prototypes, and it would be really cool to see someone as big as Microsoft utilizing technology like that.

 

Edit: I just keep imagining working in that data center would turn into

[Arty]

Drip Drip

imagine a leak. lol

[rhqz]

Just now, Arty said:

Drip Drip

imagine a leak. lol

Exactly lmao

[Fulgrim]

Imagine some rough currents, and a data center simply floats away, never to be heard of again.

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

The Pirate Bay already sails the sea.

[Unhelpful]

Pretty neat.

[Imabigmac]

Maintenance costs would far overweight the energy savings. The sea is a very harsh environment.

[CommanderAlex]

Lmao. Watch environmentalists are gonna be- it will add to global warming!!

[ObeseWalrus]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

Lmao. Watch environmentalists are gonna be- it will add to global warming!!

lolno, global warming does not work that way.

[Whorax]

Neato.

[BURNINGJUNK]

Dammit my email got eaten by a whale again. Forget hackers we must be worried about marine life stealing data.

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, ObeseWalrus said:

lolno, global warming does not work that way.

Well it adds heat dont it? It warms the oceans. 

[ObeseWalrus]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

Well it adds heat dont it? It warms the oceans. 

Not in that way. 

[shermantanker]

this was unexpected, but makes sense if it works. It is certainly thinking out of the box, I mean when thinking of locations for server farms the ocean is pretty much at the bottom of my list.

[haloharry97]

about time someone dose this, what i am hoping for more then ever if they make game servers between uk and usa so Europe people can play with usa people with a lot less lag :( it is not fun playing some games with 100+ping

[Daegun]

1 hour ago, CommanderAlex said:

Well it adds heat dont it? It warms the oceans. 

But it's heat that would just be added to the air anyways. There's no new heat, just where it's going is different. :P

[Misanthrope]

Obligatory:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Mayaa]

I knew there was talks about having them on ships or something similar out in the ocean, but underwater? damn thats something else.

[landon418]

It's only a matter of time before Rapture is built

[Brigwen]

And then... it leaks

More money to repair it.

But, will it make the area around it change like the water gets warmer around it? Sorry, I'm not a smart man.

[1823alex]

This seems really cool, but what happens if there's a leak? There's also a lot more maintenance to be done with an underwater datacenter I would assume, I mean what if a shark eats a cable or something like probably not, but there's always the what if.

[Lethal Seraph]

So you have to be able to scuba dive, or able to drive a submersible to do a service on those servers then? That actually sounds good on a resume.

[ShadowCaptain]

Put it in space, its cold, and you can just use solar

 

and use lasers