Microsoft Project Natick.Microsoft
- Microsoft installed a data center underwater off the coast of Scotland in 2018.
- The center was retrieved this summer and turned out successfully.
- Now, Microsoft is considering how to use the findings in future data centers.
Data centers are the "backbone of the Internet," where data and photos from the cloud are physically stored. In 2018, Microsoft sent an experimental data center down to the ocean floor encased in steel and powered by renewable energy.
This summer, when researchers lifted the data center out of the ocean, they found that it was eight times more reliable than comparable land data centers. For this project to be successful, Microsoft brought in outside experts to study the economic and environmental factors involved.
It worked with Naval Group, a French company that works with submarines and marine energy. With Naval Group's help, they built the data center to roughly the same dimensions of a standard cargo container, and the experiment began. Some of the data stored in the center included COVID-19 research.
Now that this phase of Project Natick is finished, Microsoft says that all parts of the vessel and servers will be recycled, and the ocean floor is being restored to the way it was before the project began.
Here's how it went.