Microsoft has officially pulled the plug on Project Natick, the adventurous idea of submerging data centers in the ocean deeps. Kicked off in 2015 and submerged near Scotland in 2018, the aquatic data center housed 855 servers and flaunted a lower failure rate than its landlocked counterparts. This ponderous water ballet of tech was meant to explore the viability and benefits of underwater data benefits, reducing energy use for cooling and hoping to be extra reliable because machines apparently work better without humans fussing around them.
Though Microsoft has deep-sixed the initiative, it wasn’t a wash. The low failure rates and the operation stableness on less reliable power sources gave the tech giant some food for thought. Key takeaways like using nitrogen over oxygen and the vibrational effects on server health are now being used to improve data centers back on dry land. But yes, the dream of servers playing house with fishes and serving as artificial reefs will remain just that—a dream.
Despite the grounding of the project, Microsoft isn’t drying off just yet. They are now diving into the realms of robotics to manage heavy lifting in data centers and experimenting with modular nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, other nations, like China, are catching the wave and starting their own underwater projects, seeking sustainable and efficient ways to keep up with the endless appetite for data center capacity.
**Hot Take**
Ah, Microsoft, always making a splash only to bail water later! Project Natic Titanically didn’t quite work out, did it? It’s like investing in waterbeds in the age of memory foam mattresses. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something fishy about ditching a project that’s more stable underwater than above. What’s next, cloud storage actually stored in clouds? Sky’s the limit, quite literally, it seems!
Original Article: https://www.techradar.com/pro/goodbye-natick-microsoft-has-given-up-on-one-of-its-coolest-projects-ever-underwater-data-center-pilot-got-canned-after-just-two-years-despite-successful-outcomes-and-wont-come-back