Interview: Ben Cutler on Microsoft’s Project Natick

In this episode of the podcast, Duncan McLeod interviews Ben Cutler, the head of Microsoft’s Project Natick, a research project to determine the feasibility of building subsea data centres.

Cutler and a team from Microsoft have deployed a subsea data centre in the north of Scotland, which they are using to ascertain whether building submarine data centres makes practical and financial sense.

In the podcast, Cutler explains where the idea came from, the two phases of the project so far, what Microsoft has learnt and where the project is going.

The Scottish test facility is powered entirely by renewable energy and the idea is that future sites could tap into energy harvested from the waves.

Cutler explains the costs involved, what the test facility is being used for and the mechanics involved in deploying computing resources in the ocean.

Don’t miss this fascinating discussion!

How to subscribe to TechCentral’s podcasts

There are many ways to enjoy TechCentral’s podcasts, beyond simply streaming them from the website. The best way is by subscribing to them using an app on your phone, allowing you to listen in the car (via Bluetooth), at the gym or wherever you happen to be. Use the links below to subscribe.

iTunes
Pocket Casts
TuneIn Radio
Stitcher
iono.fm
RSS

iTunes
Pocket Casts
TuneIn Radio
Stitcher
iono.fm
RSS

iTunes
Pocket Casts
TuneIn Radio
Stitcher
iono.fm
RSS

iTunes
Pocket Casts
TuneIn Radio
Stitcher
iono.fm
RSS

iTunes
Pocket Casts
TuneIn Radio
Stitcher
iono.fm
RSS

TechCentral podcasts are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. This means you may copy and redistribute the material unmodified, but you must provide the appropriate credit to TechCentral, with a link to this page. We also ask that if you’d like to use this podcast on your website or in an electronic newsletter that you use iono.fm’s embedded player. The HTML for this episode’s embedded player is: