The Successful Underwater Data Center Experiment

Microsoft launched the first ideation (Phase I) of the underwater data center experiment in 2014. In late 2015, the Project Natick team submerged a small data center with 12 racks containing 864 servers 40 ft. underwater.

The team retrieved the submerged servers, in early 2016, with some promising research to begin Phase II.

Phase II was deployed 117 ft. deep off the shore of Scotland’s Northern Isles in June 2018. It was monitored and tested by the Project Natick team for two years before being retrieved in 2020.

Phase II took 90 days from the factory to operation. Researchers filled the 12.2m x 2.8m rounded container with one atmospheric pressure of dry nitrogen (as opposed to the oxygen-filled land-data-centers).

The data center was fully powered by renewable on-shore wind and solar as well as off-shore tidal power.

While this is certainly a fascinating tale so far, you may be wondering: why?

Why Did Microsoft Submerge Data Center Servers Underwater?

The Microsoft team aimed to show that a completely sealed data center submerged underwater could help solve a couple of problems we experience on land.

The cost of land is expensive, and there is a lot of ocean floor. It also makes sense since the most densely populated areas worldwide are fairly close to the ocean.

Another reason is the idea of using tidal waves to power the servers. Unlike wind power or even solar power, tidal waves never stop. They are a continuous source of power which could mean a never-ending power generator.

They were also hoping to fix the problems of corrosion from oxygen and humidity and help regulate the temperature fluctuations. These aspects would cut data center costs by finding a cheaper space to operate, unlimited free power, and causing less maintenance from corrosion.

The researchers concluded that the planned length of operation without maintenance for an underwater data center would be somewhere in the realm of up to five years.

How Did the Underwater Data Center Perform?

While the data is still being analyzed, researchers can make the following claims so far.

There was a 1/8th failure rate among the submerged servers when compared to the land-based control group.

Initial thoughts from the team believe that the atmosphere created by inserting nitrogen and pressurizing the chamber before deployment helped chemical corruption and corrosion of the components.

The data centers are being labeled a success not only due to the success rate compared to the control group but because the data center itself will be fully recycled, including all the servers, heat exchangers, and the vessel itself.

Project Natick was also able to help perform COVID-19 research.

The environmental concerns are also non-existent because the sea bed is being restored to the same state as it was before deployment.

It’s difficult to achieve this level of “greenness” from an on-shore data center.

Underwater Data Centers Can Be Efficient and Sustainable

Microsoft’s successful experiment shows that the idea of an underwater data center is not only achievable but even practical.

Cooling a data center has been quite the task for data center managers, but an underwater data center can help alleviate some of these issues.

While the technology of tidal wave power isn’t quite where it needs to be, Project Natick is still powered by renewable energy.

Experiments are being done for tidal turbines and wave energy converters that produce electricity from seawater.

A combination of wind turbines and solar panels is helping supply 10,000 residents with electricity at Orkney Island, which also sends power to their data center.

Experiments like this one show that the right combination of experiments and technologies can lead to innovations for data centers and other aspects of life.

The underwater data center project shows how sustainable data center servers and their components can be in the right environment.

The data center was underwater for two years with an excellent success rate. This furthers the idea and viability of a lights out data center.

What Is a Lights Out Data Center?

The idea of a lights out data center seemed a little more far-fetched until the recent success of Project Natick, which was underwater without maintenance for two years.

Although data centers on land may not have the perfect environment of pressurized chambers, cool temperatures of the ocean's depths, automation can help with these same issues.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can already take away some of the maintenance issues data centers currently have. Still, the goal is for the technology to take care of itself in the future completely.

Automation can be used for data center operations making it more efficient. Can you imagine a data center manager leaving servers to run itself for two years with a failure rate 1/8th that of its control group?

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can manage power, cooling, space, and more.

Potential Problems for Underwater Data Centers

There are a couple of different problems that can occur when trying to run a data center underwater.

While there would be less maintenance from corrosion from oxygen and humidity, having the cabinet and servers underwater would make it a lot harder if there were the need for any maintenance.

Datacenter managers would also need to be certified in scuba diving as well. The most likely scenario could be even worse, having to excavate the entire data center to make routine maintenance.

While tidal power is free and unlimited, it is also more complicated than wind and solar power. Researchers are still trying to find a good and reliable way to harness the power of tidal waves.

Temperature regulation is also key. The cool temperature of the ocean can help keep the servers from overheating, which is still a problem data center managers continue to deal with on land.

Data centers get extremely hot, requiring the best cooling technology, which drives costs higher for users.

There is also an issue of politics when trying to experiment on the ocean. The oceans are all connected, which makes them a shared resource.

Although there were many potential pitfalls to submerging a data center underwater, Microsoft could go ahead with the experiment.

CONCLUSION

Technology continues to advance every day. Data centers are implementing new ideas and new technologies to help them run more efficiently and be more environmentally friendly. We first covered Microsoft’s Project Natick four years ago.

The project seemed like a farfetched novel idea. Still, its success has shown that the data center industry and the technology companies around it are looking for the best possible ways to be more efficient.

We are still may be years away from deploying underwater data centers as a norm. Still, this successful project shows that the future of the sustainable data center industry is bright.