One of the main problems facing computer data centers and associated with the provision of efficient cooling. High temperature reduces the efficiency of the computer systems. However, the use of conventional approaches to the organization of the cooling systems is very expensive. First, such systems themselves are heated, releasing additional heat, which is necessary where-that to withdraw, and second, they require huge reserves of electricity. Many companies are experimenting on how to reduce costs and at the same time to minimize its impact on the environment.
For example, Facebook has long been actively uses data centers that are installed in the Swedish town of luleå is almost at the Arctic Circle. Cold ambient air temperature and can significantly reduce cooling energy. Google uses to optimize the energy consumption of their data centers algorithms AI. And Microsoft has decided to go under water.
Specialists descended on the sea bottom near the coast of Scotland (near the coast of the Orkney Islands archipelago in the North-East of Scotland, where is the European marine energy center) data center, enclosed in a huge, 12-meter-high steel capsule. There are 12 864 racks with servers that can accommodate up to 27.6 PT data (or 27 600 TB). This is enough to handle the information of thousands of high-performance PC or to store approximately 5 million movies in good quality. The company intends to find out effectively whether the seawater will remove heat from the servers of the data center.
The electronics is powered from a wire laid under water. The cable is connected to the Orkney power grid, which provides energy from renewable sources (wind and sun) about 10 thousand local residents.
A prototype underwater data center in the framework of the Project Natick tested in 2015, when lit the installation at the bottom of the ocean near the U.S. state of California. It was significantly smaller volume, and worked for only 105 days.
The new structure was immersed to a depth of about 35 meters. It is planned that she will stay there for five years — her service is not required, and the hardware by that time will still expire.
A project has a number of advantages over terrestrial counterparts. First, the cold sea water more efficiently to cool the servers and cheaper. Second, to underwater containers can be connected turbines or tidal energy system, which can also be used to generate electricity. And third, under the water the “cloud” can be deployed in a short time — less than 90 days versus two years on earth.
If the experiment proves successful, the company plans to “flood” and its other data centers. In the radius of 200 km from the coast half of the population. Microsoft hopes that as a result of “underwater clouds” will be a fast and effective way of delivering AI applications and gaming content to end users.
Microsoft goes under water
Nikolai Khizhnyak