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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the anticipation-was-breathless dept.

Microsoft's underwater server experiment resurfaces after two years:

Back in 2018, Microsoft sunk an entire data center to the bottom of the Scottish sea, plunging 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes of storage 117 feet deep in the ocean. Today, the company has reported that its latest experiment was a success, revealing findings that show that the idea of an underwater data center is actually a pretty good one.

[...] The benefits are big. Microsoft says the underwater data center had just one-eighth the failure rate of a land-based data center, a dramatic improvement. That lower failure rate is important, given that it's much harder to service a busted server when it's in an airtight container at the bottom of the ocean.

Next up for Microsoft's Project Natick team: showing that the servers can be easily removed and recycled once they reach the end of their life.

From the report:

Datacenter Designation   "Northern Isles" (SSDC-002).
Pressure Vessel Dimensions   12.2m length, 2.8m diameter (3.18m including external components); about the size of a 40' ISO shipping container you might see on a ship, train, or truck.
Subsea Docking Structure Dimensions   14.3m length, 12.7m width.
Electrical Power Source   100% locally produced renewable electricity from on-shore wind and solar, off-shore tide and wave.
Electrical Power Consumption   240 KW.
Payload   12 racks containing 864 standard Microsoft datacenter servers with FPGA acceleration and 27.6 petabytes of disk. This Natick datacenter is as powerful as several thousand high end consumer PCs and has enough storage for about 5 million movies.
Location   European Marine Energy Centre, Scotland, UK.
Internal Operating Environment   1 atmosphere pressure, dry nitrogen.
Time to Deploy   Less than 90 days from factory to operation.
Planned Length of Operation Without Maintenance   Up to 5 years.


Original Submission

Related Stories

Tiny Data Center Makes for a Comfortable Swim 11 comments

Tiny data center makes for a comfortable swim:

A data center about the size of a washing machine is being used to heat a public swimming pool in England.

Data centers' servers generate heat as they operate, and interest is growing in finding ways to harness it to cut energy costs and offset carbon emissions.

In this latest example, the computing technology has been placed inside a white box and surrounded by oil, which captures the heat before being pumped into a heat exchanger, according to a BBC report.

The setup is effective enough to heat a council-run swimming pool in Exmouth, about 150 miles west of London, to about 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) for about 60% of the time, saving the operator thousands of dollars. And with energy costs rising sharply in the U.K., and councils looking for ways to save money, an initiative like this could be the difference between the pool staying open and closing down.

Behind the idea is U.K.-based tech startup Deep Green. In exchange for hosting its kit, Deep Green installs free digital boilers at pools and pays for the energy that they use. Meanwhile, tech firms pay Deep Green to use its computing power for various artificial intelligence and machine learning projects.

Related:
    Commercial Underwater Datacenter Goes Online This Year
    Microsoft's Underwater Server Experiment Resurfaces After Two Years
    Heating Homes and Businesses with "Data Furnaces"


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:54AM (13 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:54AM (#1051544) Homepage Journal

    Yeah, sinking to the bottom of the ocean is about the most useful thing a Microsoft server has ever done.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:13AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:13AM (#1051552)

      You jest, but it did resurface (there are pics!)
      With a careful selection of surface coatings (bait), it could double as a shell fish rookery!

      • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:00AM (5 children)

        by Unixnut (5779) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:00AM (#1051644)

        >You jest, but it did resurface (there are pics!)
        >With a careful selection of surface coatings (bait), it could double as a shell fish rookery!

        Or a boat anchor.

        Amazing, the 90s and 00s was filled with pithy jibes at Microsoft for their software turning PCs into nothing more useful than a boat anchor, and here we are, in the 2020's, and Microsoft not only have done it themselves, but shared it with the world.

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:58AM (4 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:58AM (#1051652) Homepage Journal

          Not really. They're plenty big but you need at least ten pounds worth of anchor even for a little jon boat. 15 if you expect wind over 10MPH. I'm pretty sure I received enough AOL CDs back in the day to make several though.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:17PM (3 children)

            by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:17PM (#1052005)

            I received enough AOL CDs back in the day to make several [anchors]

            You will likely find that CDs are too buoyant to make a decent anchor from any quantity.

            --
            Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:22PM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:22PM (#1052181) Homepage Journal

              Science to the rescue!

              *tests in the sink*

              Technically, no. They sink, so you could make an anchor from them. Whether it would fit in the boat or you'd be able to lift it is another question that I don't have the ability to test at the moment though.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday September 17 2020, @11:02PM (1 child)

                by Osamabobama (5842) on Thursday September 17 2020, @11:02PM (#1052445)

                I just looked up the density of polycarbonate; it's about 1.2 g/cm3. That will sink, of course, but won't have the same affinity for the bottom as normal anchors. It will tend to drift.

                I suppose that just makes the design problem more difficult, though. I propose a college design contest for engineering students to construct an effective anchor entirely of compact discs. I suspect a Danforth design could do well, but it would depend on the specific test cases chosen.

                There must be something that can be done with all the surplus CDs that are laying around, right?

                --
                Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:52PM (5 children)

      by legont (4179) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @02:52PM (#1051736)

      How come Putin did not send his submarines to mess with it? Lazy sunofabitches.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:53PM (3 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:53PM (#1051791) Journal

        Did you read that it was running Microsoft software?

        Submarines need to protect themselves.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:17PM (2 children)

          by legont (4179) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:17PM (#1052006)

          Russians do run Microsoft. Yes, I know how strange it sounds, but this is true at least so far. Perhaps, a new conspiracy theory is needed.
          https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/russian-federation [statcounter.com]
          In fact Russia is the most loyal Microsoft customer, I believe. Perhaps they have a death wish.

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:00PM (1 child)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:00PM (#1052264) Journal

            Back in the 1990s, I heard this, but I don't have any idea if it is true. But it has just the right ring of horror and disbelief to be true.

            I heard that the Russians used Excel 6 (at that time) to keep track of their nuclear mobile missile launchers.

            Wow, what a great database you've got there!

            --
            People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
            • (Score: 2) by legont on Friday September 18 2020, @01:46PM

              by legont (4179) on Friday September 18 2020, @01:46PM (#1052727)

              It is still true. The best Russian hacking tools are for windows only. Even script boys who run Linux mostly do their dark things in windoze. I visit the forums every now and then. Submarines are designed in Windows as we speak.
              The Government is trying to divorce, but I am not sure what their success rate is.

              --
              "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:23PM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:23PM (#1052182) Homepage Journal

        Mess with it? You mean like make it do something unexpected like be useful?

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday September 16 2020, @04:27AM (16 children)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @04:27AM (#1051569)

    Uhhh...this is America, could you please give that to us in Football Fields, please?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:14AM (12 children)

      by fakefuck39 (6620) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:14AM (#1051591)

      it's cute euros think we don't use metric. we use both, where more convenient. it's as easy as learning to blind-type on a keyboard in a different language. i blind-type in english, french, russian, and hangul. it took an hour to learn french, a week to learn the russian layout, and korean took about a month, but because I was too old to learn new tricks at that point.

      for science we use SI units. for everyday life we use the much more convenient units. I love how you have 24 hour time. tell me how your watches look? oh, you use both, but instead of adding am and pm to a standard time, you now convert your 12-hour watch to 24 hour time. awesome. how pray tell do you euros have the brain capacity to use two time systems?! and the funny thing is, there's literally no convenience reason to use 24h time, because instead of "hours" we can say "pm" - 16 hours 30 becomes 4:30 pm. not even saving a word with that 24h system. yet euros use 2.

      an average foot in a shoe is about a foot. super easy to measure things. inches with those fractions? super easy, because you can always keep dividing w/o losing precision or going into stupid shit like - I got 1/8 of a meter, now let me divide that by half. holy shit I now need a $40 scientific ruler with fractions of millimeters to measure something the length of my thumb.

      you want a shot? awesome - 50ml. wtf? you want a small drink? it's 5 shots. you want a large drink? Oh, that's a 3rd of a liter - 333ml. we can't measure that with shots. How about - a shot is 1oz, a small drink is 8 of them, a large drink is 12 of them. done.

      temperature? for science k/c is great, and we use it. for every day life? hey, how hot does 100 degrees feel? stick your finger in there and find out. here's an idea - 100 is about what you feel like - it's your body temp. and zero - that's right about when it's too cold to go outside. how's about a scale where we know what 0 and 100 feel like - that sounds pretty damn more convenient. and btw, out thermometer can increment in degrees. a C thermometer needs half-degrees because while one fucking f is not noticeable, a single c is.

      • (Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Wednesday September 16 2020, @09:36AM (8 children)

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @09:36AM (#1051635) Journal

        we use both, where more convenient

        For example when programming Mars landers. ;-)

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:54AM (7 children)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:54AM (#1051650) Homepage Journal

          Refresh my memory, who was it who landed the first probe on Mars?

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:14PM (6 children)

            by PiMuNu (3823) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:14PM (#1051754)

            Ahem, Wikipedia says it was the Russians (before my time)

            > On 2 December 1971, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing, but its transmission was interrupted after 14.5 seconds.

            • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:33PM (2 children)

              by Freeman (732) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:33PM (#1051770) Journal

              "Soft" landing. Like when my soon-to-be wife's Jeep got rear-ended, but could still drive. Yet, the insurance company marked it as totaled, because the frame was slightly bent. Except, in that case, it was still functional and could be driven for a lot longer than 14.5 seconds.

              --
              Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
              • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:03PM (1 child)

                by PiMuNu (3823) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:03PM (#1051845)

                Just sayin'...

                • (Score: 3, Funny) by Freeman on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:10PM

                  by Freeman (732) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @05:10PM (#1051851) Journal

                  Though, by some definition of "soft landing" you are correct. Still, the USA has been very successful with regards to mars probes / rovers. Some might say eerily successful. Opportunity [xkcd.com]

                  --
                  Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
            • (Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:48PM (2 children)

              by fakefuck39 (6620) on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:48PM (#1052217)

              Ahem, when the world sets standards and Russians completely ignore them, yeah - they're gonna be first. That "first," much like the first man in space, doesn't quite count. It's like saying the nazis were first in some medicine breakthroughs - by testing on and killing a bunch of humans. My family, although American for 25 years, is originally from Moscow BTW, and my gramma was in the KGB, in charge of high altitude photography.

              Russians were first because they launch a bunch of badly designed and poorly built shit, taking every shortcut they can. When something doesn't succeed they try to hide it ever happened. When they succeed they lie about details and announce it to the world. They destroyed lots of expensive equipment and killed a crazy number of cosmonauts to get those successful launches. Even the first man in space didn't land, since his craft was not built to withstand landing. The guy jumped out of the flaming capsule at high altitude. Once he landed with every bone broken, they dragged him back to the crashed capsule and took pr photos of him "landing." Yeah, no shit you're first if you launch a man into space without ability to land. And no one knows home many died before him.

              • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday September 17 2020, @03:18PM (1 child)

                by PiMuNu (3823) on Thursday September 17 2020, @03:18PM (#1052242)

                Killing people is a nasty business - I recall a story on SN a few days ago about a Chinese rocket crashing on a school. Also a few years back a story about a Russian test rocket exploding and killing a bunch of people

                Breaking equipment, not so much. Do what it takes to get it done. SpaceX have not been so careful about not blowing stuff up, and good for them.

                • (Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday September 17 2020, @10:07PM

                  by fakefuck39 (6620) on Thursday September 17 2020, @10:07PM (#1052413)

                  SpaceX is a private company. Most of Russia's population was literally starving to death, and they were pissing away billions on this underdeveloped destroyed equipment for a chance it makes it. When SpaceX loses money, it's not coming out of your food budget - they can do whatever they want.

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @12:34PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @12:34PM (#1051663)

        blah blah blah typical arrogant condescending american makes arrogant condescending reply blah blah blah

        'Nuff said.

        • (Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:52PM

          by fakefuck39 (6620) on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:52PM (#1052220)

          This American is from Europe originally, raised on the metric system. He's lived in several EU countries. It's cute you take the opinion of someone who knows both cases very well from decades of using both, and ignore it with "nuff said" and just stick to your own uneducated opinion. it's what keeps you stupid. stay stupid. we need farmers to grow corn.

          not being condescending to europeans (which would include myself). being condescending to you though, you retard.

      • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:24AM

        by linkdude64 (5482) on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:24AM (#1052089)

        >Euros
        Stopped reading there, I was bottle-fed with blended burgers (100% "beef"). I am 100% American. Love it or leave it, USA! USA! USA!, I stand for the Pledge, etc. B) Not even slightly sarcastic - I love all that shit.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:56PM (2 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:56PM (#1051799) Journal

      5 million movies?

      The MPAA is going to want to have a talk with them.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Osamabobama on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:22PM (1 child)

        by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:22PM (#1052009)

        How many movies are there? I've heard that Bollywood is prolific, but that number seems like somebody rounded up from 'all of them'.

        --
        Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
        • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:26AM

          by linkdude64 (5482) on Thursday September 17 2020, @04:26AM (#1052090)

          How many videos are on youtube? Are "home movies" movies? Hmm.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:03AM (#1051589)

    I'll wait until they come out with the Resurface Pro.

  • (Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:25AM

    by fakefuck39 (6620) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @06:25AM (#1051595)

    so, lemme get this straight. they go deep underwater to about 3.5 atmospheres. then they pressurize the tube to 1 atm. now, if there's any kind of a leak, it's going to be pushed in super-fast by the ocean water, ripping it up some more and getting everything wet nice and fast. now if you pressurize it to oh, say 3.5-4atm, a little gas leaks out slowly, then in a bit more you have water slowly coming in, giving you a hellava larger window to pull this thing up before it's all gone. it also cools a ton better.

    the only problem I can think of is if they got spinning drives filled with helium in there. but with compression and dedup, which is feasible only on flash, you can get to just about the same cost as unreduced data on spinning drives.

    I also notice how much shit grew on it - I bet that's not going to be too great for cooling. I wonder if you could just wrap the whole thing in a like 5 big plastic bags and just peel off a layer every year.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @08:49AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 16 2020, @08:49AM (#1051629)

    Couldn't find it in the article or the stats in summary. How's this thing connected?

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:55PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @03:55PM (#1051796) Journal

      If it were connected, and running Windows, it would not have stayed running this long.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:27PM

        by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:27PM (#1052012)

        So it was in an air-gapped...er, water-gapped enclave?

        On an unrelated note, I've heard that computing infrastructure is good for jobs. Were there any new employees in the area when they retrieved it from the bottom? How many jobs were lost when they lost the datacenter?

        --
        Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by SomeGuy on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:55AM (1 child)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Wednesday September 16 2020, @11:55AM (#1051651)

    What they didn't tell anyone is that it got contaminated with raw sewage. This wasn't reported because it was impossible to tell the difference between the actual raw sewage and HTML/Javascript.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by khallow on Wednesday September 16 2020, @12:51PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 16 2020, @12:51PM (#1051675) Journal
      I would have thought the obvious problem was HTML/Javascript floating to the surface and killing waterfowl.
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