Microsoft’s underwater data center could solve some of the cloud’s biggest problems

February 3, 2016 Off By David

Grazed from Bizjournals. Author: Ashley Stewart.

Microsoft may have found a solution for some of the cloud computing industry’s biggest problems by moving its clouds under the sea. The Redmond company on Monday released details about a prototype for an underwater data center. Throughout a one-year pilot, called Project Natick, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) built and submerged a 10-by-7-foot, 38,000-pound data center about a half-mile off the Pacific Coast.

As Microsoft’s cloud business ­– which reached $6.3 billion in revenue during the most recent quarter – continues to grow, so does the company’s need to store data. Underwater data centers, Microsoft found, decrease cooling and power costs, use more renewable energy, reduce latency and can be set up more quickly…

Server farms suck up enormous amounts of power to run the racks of computers inside, and even more to keep them cool. Data centers generate so much heat, Amazon plans to use its own servers to heat its downtown Seattle skyscrapers. Submerging servers in cold water can decrease cooling costs, Microsoft said, and data centers would be able to harness the ocean’s renewable energy…

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