Contrary to very popular belief that cloud computing is taking place exclusively in cyberspace, is actually all the work happens in physical systems — data centers located around the world and consisting of a server connected between stations. For these data centers require vast amounts of electricity and as a consequence produce huge amount of heat. Of course, this heat need to be taken away somewhere.
There are many ways to do this, however Microsoft have decided to choose among all possibilities the most original. She decided to place one of their servers is at the bottom of the sea. The project, dubbed Project Natick, the data center was placed inside the 17-ton cylindrical tank measuring 3 x 2 meters and dropped it into the water 800 meters from the Pacific coast of the United States. The capacity of the data center, placed in the container, equivalent output of 300 desktop computers.
The data center remained under water for three months since August last year. It management and monitoring was carried out remotely. Cooled data center conventional cold ocean water, which took away the heat from the exchangers arranged on the outside of the tank. Despite the fact that the power data center is received through underwater cables, these units can be equipped with their own systems of renewable energy, which they will collect, for example, underwater currents or waves.
Considering how now populated coastal areas such data centre established and operating under water can be very convenient because it saves space on earth. This feature is very important to consider, as delays in transmitting information increases proportionally with the distance between the receiving station and by data center.
In addition, the construction of the required capacity, which was used in the project Natick, took only 90 days. Thus there is no need in construction of new buildings for the installation of new data centers.
In the future the company plans the construction of a new submarine vessel, which will be four times bigger and will be able to fit yourself in the data center 20 times more powerful than the previous. Underwater Internet station plan to submerge under water for a year. Power for it will be generated from renewable energy sources. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop underwater data centers that will be able to stay under water for 5 years and more.
