Underwater Bitbarns

Fun fact: my Masters degree is in Marine Science. I once hand fed a shark, that was quite cool.

Undersea datacenter biz offers 90-day trial

Testing platform for those ‘unfamiliar with the subsea environment’

The RegisterDan Robinson

I’m fascinated by these underwater data centres. It’s been talked about for a long time. I remember asking one senior engineer if he had a scuba suit in case they got traction (not amused). Microsoft tried and it seems to have gone okay.

Microsoft’s underwater data centre resurfaces after two years

Microsoft’s unusual experiment in the sea off Orkney seems to have provided some valuable lessons.

BBC News

1/8th of the failures, but they never said what it was used for, high performance and load? Nothing else in four years either. You can read about it here

Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably - Source

Microsoft retrieved the Northern Isles underwater datacenter from the seafloor off Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Project Natick is proving the concept of underwater datacenters is feasible as well as logistically, environmentally and economically practical.

SourceJohn Roach

(Edit: ah it was used by 18 groups in MS and provided additional resources for COVID-19 vaccine research via Folding at Home and World Community Grid. Interesting.)

The young marine scientist in me isn’t too happy about them being dumped just anywhere. Climate change and how vicious the sea can be needs to be taken into account. Sailing and living by the North Sea? It can humble you quickly.

The much older ‘What happens if it goes wrong?’ person has additional doubts. Especially for colocation. 4-16hr lead time to maintain or replace servers (if the sea allows)? That’s a lot of cost to have a ship, and crew/technicians on standby.

Offshore wind farms are being looked at for co-location, which initially seems to make a lot of sense. But everybody forgets that they are considered critical infrastructure and need to have significant security controls. That’s a nightmare risk register and sign off process for access

Offshore wind and risk management: opportunities and unchartered waters

Get expert insight into how offshore wind farms present a dynamic and evolving risk landscape, with an emerging set of threats and challenges to consider.

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Especially with politics around the World being a little more spicy.

Very much still in the ‘Not sure’ category for me.