Project Natick: The Future of Underwater Data Centers

Cloud computing is constantly advancing our way of life. The most important element in the age of digitalization is data. Communication, work, study, leisure, and other daily work depend entirely on this information. So, where is the address of this huge amount of information? Where are the details of our life being deposited? Ans- Datacenter. A data center is built with hundreds of servers across the giant space. But with the increasing number of data, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain them. Let’s find out the story of Microsoft’s underwater data center!

At the beginning of the Project Natick 

It can be said that water is one of the main enemies of electronic devices. Where a little water instantly destroys the functionality of an electronic device, it is unthinkable to set up so many servers at the bottom of the ocean. On top of that, there is saltwater various small aquatic creatures. This unrealistic idea has been put into practice by Microsoft’s Project Natick, the world’s first underwater data center.

Thoughts started at a Microsoft event in 2014, where employees got a chance to share their fancy ideas. It was here that Sun James, a former US Navy employee, and researcher at Microsoft, came up with his idea of ​​an underwater data center, and Microsoft went down that year to make it a reality. 

The data center is about 40 feet long, has 12 racks, and has a total of 64 servers. The server was set up in 2016 at 118 feet below sea level and was re-launched in 2020 after two years of successful operation. This was the management of Phase-2 of Project Natick.

Project Natick ​​is a combination of 3 phases. The first phase began in 2015, with the submergence of the data center in calm California waters. Researchers examined its future potential by keeping it submerged for 105 days. Phase-2 was started in 2016 with optimistic results. The purpose of Phase-2 is to test the environmental and economic viability of the concept of an underwater data center.

For Phase-2, Microsoft contracted a company called Naval Group of France, whose job was to work on maritime defense and renewable energy. They design and manufacture vessels for the data center. Submarine cooling systems are used to exchange heat with seawater.

After 12 months of testing the power consumption, humidity level, temperature, etc., the data center was reopened on July 9, 2020 for further analysis. Phase-2 is completed in between. The purpose of the next phase is to test the stability of the data center, which is in process. This is the story of Natik, but why the initiative of underwater data center instead of the land data center?

Land Data Center vs. Underwater Data Center

We know that any electronic device generates heat with continuous use, and these servers run relentlessly. Data centers require good maintenance to control the amount of heat generated, which is very expensive—oxygen, dust, etc. In the air are also harmful to the server. So if the servers can be kept in water in a closed environment, then the responsibility of cooling can be left on the water! Much like nuclear submarines, using the oceans as heat absorbers. Not only cooling but other reasons behind it can impress anyone.

There are several things to consider when building a data center on land:

• At least 20 acres of vacant land,
• Adequate water resources,
• Powerful, reliable and affordable electricity
• Areas less affected by natural disasters.

As it is difficult to find such an area, financial and geographical factors have to be considered in creating a data center which is undoubtedly an obstacle in creating more data centers. In addition, data centers are away from settlements, increasing the time of data travel (ping), meaning that more time is required to get data from one place to another.

But about half the world’s population lives within 120 miles of the coast. So, data travel time is greatly reduced if data centers can be set up at sea. As a result, gaming and browsing can be done better. In addition, these Microsoft data centers can run for 5 consecutive years without a full-checkup and will take only 90 days to create a capsule. In other words, the huge process that has to go through to create land-based data centers, it goes without saying. These data centers can be built very quickly according to the market’s demand. Besides, the failure rate of these is only 1/6 percent compared to the conventional data center. Inside the data center, nitrogen is used instead of oxygen, which helps in providing longevity to electronic devices.

The most amazing thing is that these data centers are renewable. The data center’s containers and internal equipment are all made of recyclable material. And Microsoft is setting up a data center on Arkansas Island to test whether it can run on renewable energy. Almost the entire island is powered by renewable energy. In other words, these underground data centers are also environmentally friendly.

The question is whether these data centers have any effect on marine life. According to Microsoft, the answer is no; Instead, various marine animals build their habitats around the data center. At the same time, these data centers do not create any greenhouse effect, which is a big sign of hope for the future climate. It can be said that this project of Microsoft benefits technology and the world.

So is the future of data-storage going to be an underwater data center?

Compared to land-based data centers, underwater data centers are undoubtedly technologically, financially and environmentally ideal and will certainly increase in number in the future. But that doesn’t mean that land-based data centers will disappear. At the outset, about 50 percent of the world’s population lives within 120 miles of the coast. Still, a land-based data center is needed to ensure uninterrupted service to the remaining 50 percent. Small startups also have data centers on land than on the sea. China has already opened an experimental data center in Zhuhai, which looks a lot like Project Natick!

Microsoft’s Project Natick ​​has brought significant success in data center technology. Its impact on climate change, in particular, is truly admirable.