Under the sea, Microsoft tests a datacenter that’s quick to deploy, could provide internet connectivity for years - Stories
news.microsoft.com

Microsoft are looking at putting datacenters under the ocean, which sounds like a really good idea to cool them but I can’t help but think a couple decades from now it’s going to start causing us problems

    • Souvlaki@beehaw.orgEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      I’m sure the engineers who made this know. And if they didn’t, this is an article from 2018, they would have most certainly found out by now.

      • CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Which makes you wonder why there’s no update because this is something that we’ve known about for thousands of years and still need to constantly repaint boats because the ocean doesn’t give a fuck.

        • flashgnash@lemm.eeOP
          3·
          1 year ago

          Maybe they’re able to use different materials? After all boats need to float so maybe they need to use lighter, less durable materials and have thinner walls

          These things could be made as dense and thick as needed because they explicitly need not to float

    • AdminWorker@lemmy.ca
      2·
      1 year ago

      My understanding is that they take a data center rack, stick it in a metal tube, then replace all the oxygen with an inert gas like argon, then sink to the bottom of the ocean. I think seawater is only exposed to the outside low tech metal.

      • CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.orgEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Right but you’ve got to remember that these are off the shelf computers so they need cabling and wires, fans, all manner of drives that will fail, connections to the outside. Are they cooling the CPUs with saltwater or just the cooling equipment? Because either way is either risky via corrosion or just as inefficient, now with the added complication of having everything at the mercy of N, underwater.

        Again, this whole thing just screams like greenwashing horseshit and the fact that there’s been no update for half a decade leads me to believe that the project was a failure.

        • AdminWorker@lemmy.ca
          3·
          1 year ago

          Ehh, it could sound that way (green washing). I remember an article from 1 or 2 years ago where Microsoft did a “pilot” test of this and the general consensus is that in a datacenter

          • while you fix part a you break part b of the identical server next to it.
          • Moore’s law means that every 5 years or so you spend more on electricity and storage than you would for the smaller more efficient hardware
          • having 0 human interaction and 0 added dust and 0 oxygen and the ocean at 40 decrees farenheight meant that no additional cooling required. (Maybe some cpu airflow to the external 40° air)

          Time (and investments) will tell if this is the solution to costly land based air heat pumps to cool datacenters with human interactions.