The first prototype of an underwater data center was developed and submerged by Microsoft back in 2015 . He was named Leona Philpot, and the project itself was named Natick.
The first model of the underwater center was small, all the necessary equipment was placed in a container 3 * 2 meters in size. The control is remote, since there were no people inside for obvious reasons. The prototype ran without problems for 105 days. Microsoft found the experiment a success. The energy efficiency of the DC is very high. No joke, the PUE was only 1.07. After the data center was disassembled and its condition analyzed, they decided to continue the project.
The project participants name each new prototype Natick N, where N is its ordinal number.
Source: Microsoft
Accordingly, the first data center described above was named Natick 1 . He was submerged under water to a depth of 10 meters off the Pacific coast of the United States.
Source: Microsoft
Natick 2 developed and submerged in 2018 . The purpose of the prototype was different from that of its predecessor. The first Natick was to prove that data centers can operate underwater with maximum energy efficiency. In 2018, Microsoft decided to show that an undersea data center that performs real-world tasks can be deployed in as little as three months after signing the project.
They decided to "drown" the second prototype in the northeast of Scotland, near the Orkney Islands. The site was chosen to, firstly, immerse the DC in cold waters, and secondly, to use the electricity generated by the local tidal power plant.
Natick characteristics:
- Power consumption at the level of 240 kW.
- Consumption of exclusively "green" energy.
- Length 12.2 m, diameter 2.8 m.
- The number of racks is 12, with 864 servers.
- Constant temperature inside without much fluctuation.
Data centers of the Natick project are considered as auxiliary objects, so a full-size DC is not needed. The undoubted advantage is the duration of work without interruptions and physical maintenance - the calculated indicator is 5 years.
Natick 3 is a full-fledged underwater DC, which includes 12 containers with Natick 2 characteristics. The new data center is a steel frame that is submerged to a depth of 200 meters (to maintain a constant temperature inside the containers). Containers and the necessary infrastructure are fixed on the frame.
Ballast tanks are placed on the sides of the steel frame, allowing you to change the immersion depth of containers with equipment. The total capacity of the DC is 5 MW. If desired, it can be scaled by connecting additional containers or even a frame with them. The restrictions are related only to energy consumption - the main thing is that there is a source of electricity and a communication channel nearby. The DC does not consume water, the cooling is passive external.
Source
About how long such a data center can operate without physical maintenance, nothing is said yet. But if we take into account that the container is designed for at least 5 years of operation, then the “shelf life” of the DC is hardly less.
By the way, Natick 2 has underwater cameras. As planned, with the help of them, you can see what is happening under water, outside the DC. Sometimes the cameras are covered by the local flora, so you may not always see the depths of the sea using the link .