Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Starlink to South Africa: ‘We are ready to invest’

      17 June 2025

      Vodacom CEO Joosub bags R71m in pay – but taxman will take a big cut

      17 June 2025

      Major rift opens between Microsoft and OpenAI

      17 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      South African AI energy start-up in R32m funding round

      17 June 2025
    • World

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      Yahoo tries to make its mail service relevant again

      13 June 2025

      Qualcomm shows off new chip for AI smart glasses

      11 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025

      South Africa unveils big state digital reform programme

      12 May 2025

      Is this the end of Google Search as we know it?

      12 May 2025
    • TCS

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025

      TCS | Sentiv, and the story behind the buyout of Altron Nexus

      3 June 2025

      TCS | Signal restored: Unpacking the Blue Label and Cell C turnaround

      28 May 2025
    • Opinion

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025

      Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

      29 May 2025

      Solar panic? The truth about SSEG, fines and municipal rules

      14 April 2025

      Data protection must be crypto industry’s top priority

      9 April 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Cloud services » Photos: Two years on, Microsoft raises its subsea data centre

    Photos: Two years on, Microsoft raises its subsea data centre

    By Duncan McLeod15 September 2020
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    Deploying data centres under the sea is not only feasible, it is logistically, environmentally and economically practical. That’s the finding from Microsoft, whose Project Natick has been experimenting with the idea of subsea data centres for several years.

    TechCentral interviewed project head Ben Cutler in September 2018 to find out why the software giant deployed a subsea data centre in the north of Scotland and what it hoped to achieve. Listen to the podcast here.

    The team used the concept to ascertain whether building submarine data centres makes practical and financial sense. Turns out, it does.

    The team hypothesised that a sealed container on the ocean floor could provide ways to improve the overall reliability of data centres

    Earlier this (northern hemisphere) summer, marine specialists brought up the shipping-container-sized data centre from the seafloor off the Orkney Islands. It was coated in algae, barnacles and sea anemones

    The Project Natick team deployed the Northern Isles data centre about 35m underwater, on the seafloor, in the spring of 2018. For the next two years, team members tested and monitored the performance and reliability of the data centre’s servers.

    “The team hypothesised that a sealed container on the ocean floor could provide ways to improve the overall reliability of data centres. On land, corrosion from oxygen and humidity, temperature fluctuations and bumps and jostles from people who replace broken components are all variables that can contribute to equipment failure,” Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Northern Isles deployment confirmed their hypothesis, which could have implications for data centres on land.”

    Tactical data centres

    Lessons learned from Project Natick are informing Microsoft’s data centre sustainability strategy around energy, waste and water, said Cutler in the Microsoft statement. “What’s more, the proven reliability of underwater data centres has prompted discussions with a Microsoft team in Azure that’s looking to serve customers who need to deploy and operate tactical and critical data centres anywhere in the world.”

    More than half the world’s population lives within 200km of the coast. By putting data centres underwater near coastal cities, data would have a short distance to travel, leading to batter latency, Microsoft said. The consistently cool subsurface seas also allow for energy-efficient data centre designs. For example, they can leverage heat-exchange plumbing such as that found on submarines.

    “We are now at the point of trying to harness what we have done as opposed to feeling the need to go and prove out some more,” Cutler said. “We have done what we need to do. Natick is a key building block for the company to use if it is appropriate.”

    The Northern Isles data centre was retrieved from the seafloor off Scotland’s Orkney Islands and towed partially submerged between the pontoons of a gantry barge to a dock in Stromness, Orkney. A coat of algae, barnacles and sea anemones grew on the data centre during its two-year deployment. Photo: Jonathan Banks
    Members of the Project Natick team power wash the Northern Isles underwater data centre. Photo: Jonathan Banks
    Spencer Fowers, a principal member of technical staff for Microsoft’s Special Projects research group, removes a server from the Northern Isles data centre. Project Natick researchers will analyse it to help determine why the servers in the underwater data centre were eight times more reliable than those in a replica data centre on land. Photo: Jonathan Banks

    The Northern Isles data centre was retrieved from the seafloor off Scotland’s Orkney Islands and towed partially submerged between the pontoons of a gantry barge to a dock in Stromness, Orkney.

    It was built by Naval Group and its subsidiary Naval Energies, experts in naval defence and marine renewable energy. Green Marine, an Orkney Island-based firm, supported Naval Group and Microsoft on the deployment, maintenance, monitoring and retrieval of the data centre. It was deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre, a test site for tidal turbines and wave energy converters.

    Other sustainability related benefits may include eliminating the need to use replacement parts

    The deployment and retrieval of the Northern Isles underwater data centre required atypically calm seas and a choreographed dance of robots and winches that played out between the pontoons of a gantry barge. The procedure took a full day on each end, Microsoft said.

    Cutler said in the statement that he is already thinking of scenarios such as co-locating an underwater data centre with an offshore wind farm. “Even in light winds, there would likely be enough power for the data centre. As a last resort, a powerline from shore could be bundled with the fibre-optic cabling needed to transport data.”

    Other sustainability related benefits may include eliminating the need to use replacement parts. In a lights-out data centre, all servers would be swapped out about once every five years. “The high reliability of the servers means that the few that fail early are simply taken offline,” Microsoft said.  — © 2020 NewsCentral Media



    Ben Cutler Microsoft Project Natick top
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleSony’s chip problem is ruining its PlayStation buzz
    Next Article Eskom attaches 139 farms as it gets tough on municipal debt

    Related Posts

    Major rift opens between Microsoft and OpenAI

    17 June 2025

    The future of database management is hybrid. Are you ready?

    6 June 2025

    How AI is rewriting the rules of software development

    4 June 2025
    Company News

    Altron: a brand journey, a birthday celebration and a bet on Joburg’s future

    17 June 2025

    7 benefits of social media integration in WordPress

    17 June 2025

    Paratus Zimbabwe and PowerTel strike milestone deal

    17 June 2025
    Opinion

    Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

    2 June 2025

    South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

    2 June 2025

    Digital giants boost South African news media – and get blamed for it

    29 May 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.