Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years

[sl8]

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-54146718

Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years

By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent
14 September 2020 Technology


After two years at the bottom of the sea, Microsoft's outlandish experiment reappears

Two years ago, Microsoft sank a data centre off the coast of Orkney in a wild experiment.

[soothsayer]

1. Fascinating. I'm not 100% sure they're environmentally friendly since they throw off so much heat

I guess one or two are ok, but if they became a thing...

[Klaralven]

2. On land the waste heat goes into the atmosphere, which has much less capacity than the ocean

[soothsayer]

3. Yeah, my fear is that we start off saying the ocean has so much more capacity

... then we ruin it by wayyy overdoing things.

There was a time when people thought the ocean was too vast to pollute, so why not just dump waste into it? (People probably still think that, actually, since we dump stuff in it.)

It’s very interesting though. That’s neat that they did that experiment, and the outcome was very interesting.

[Klaralven]

4. The lower failure rate is no surprise - telephone offices had less failures during strikes

Fewer people interacting with the equipment always lowered the failure rate.

[soothsayer]

5. That's sort of funny but sad

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. Now you have to hire a deep sea diver when technical support tells you to unplug/plug it in.

[hunter]

7. If you built the thing on land and filled the server room with nitrogen...

... the servers might be just as reliable but then you'd lose a few fools who would suffocate trying to go in to adjust something, even if the access panels were bolted shut and giant signs put up warning of the danger.

Putting the servers underwater is an effective means of foolproofing.

The article contains one glaring falsehood. All of Orkney's electricity DOES NOT come. from wind and solar power. When the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining Orkney gets its power from natural gas. More than 40% of its power comes from natural gas via the British electric grid.

Hybrid Wind / Natural Gas power systems are not going to save the world. Every bit of natural gas we extract from the ground and burn makes global warming worse.

We can't continue burning fossil fuels and expect the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere to decrease.

Solar and wind power schemes are not going to magically eliminate fossil fuels in a high energy industrial economy that expects a continuous supply of electricity.