Microsoft Serves Cloud From the Sea Bed (datacenterdynamics.com) 104
judgecorp writes: A Microsoft Research project to run a data center underwater was so successful the team actually delivered commercial Azure cloud services from the module, which was 1km off the US Pacific coast for three months. The vessel, dubbed Leona Philpot after a Halo character, is a proof of concept for Project Natick, which proposes small data centers that could be submerged for five years or more, serving coastal communities.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Azure (Score:5, Funny)
When the servers crash and display a blue screen it's not so evident anymore.
Re: (Score:1)
You realize a large chunk of their cloud business is running Linux VMs, right?
Re: (Score:1)
In typical Microsoft style, I bet the main OS running the VMs is Windows.
Still funny that Microsoft doesn't even use their own OS for their services.
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe they want to hide that fact.
Re: (Score:3)
I wonder if Microsoft is doing this for legal reasons. If the go far enough from the shore, they're in international waters, and are not subject to national laws anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
International Waters are 12 miles, not 3/5 of a mile.
Re: (Score:3)
It is measured in nautical miles = 1.15 mile = 1.852 km
By the way one knot = one nautical mile per hour.
Re: (Score:2)
30.3086
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Soo.....what's the benefit of having it below water, offshore?
I'm assuming, heat dissipation. I have a thought: could the column of steam rising out of the sea above a really big server farm be usable, given an onshore prevailing wind, to increase rainfall in dry places like California?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, last time I went swimming in the ocean I was scalded by the not quite boiling water...
Except that didn't happen, because the ocean is still cold.
Re: (Score:2)
But for absolute certain, every person who suffers any degree of flooding damage within a thousand miles will be sueing your nuts off for actual, consequent and exemplary damages.
Re: (Score:2)
Would those be the same people who were going to sue for carbon warming causing eternal drought?
Re: (Score:2)
This went to court. And the water companies almost won, until the trial judge started to lead the water company's barrister up the path of "it's your water as soon as it falls from the sky ... therefore, if it floods someone's house, or leaks
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting. Here in the US, Colorado has the same weird water law. There are people there who could use that barrister.
Re: (Score:2)
There's nothing to stop them using the argument though. Whether it works under the property and tort laws of Colvada or wherever your problem is ... you need a local lawyer.
You noticed how the commonest pre-politician employment of politicians is "lawyer" ; and who do you think they write laws to benefit?
Re: (Score:1)
Not gonna get that hot, under 30 feet of cold water with a gradual current.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Prefab means they can be deployed relatively quickly. You can prefab on land, but you still need to lay foundations... and these wouldn't be permanent; when you wanted them gone, they'd pack it up and remove it, leaving no trace.
Maybe not permanent, but designed for 20-year residence, with 5-year hardware rotations. It's enormously more expensive to build a watertight submarine than a waterproof house, so you're going to want substantial lifetime to recover that extra margin. Water-tight seals, corrosion resistance, pressure proof to say 3-4 atmospheres. The actual chamber isn't flooded, so there's still a big air space and a thick steel plate between your hot processor and the cool water.
I can see where the real estate to plant
Re: (Score:2)
Soo.....what's the benefit of having it below water, offshore?
If you think a little bit, you would know the answer right away. If not, read TFA or the quote below from TFA.
The sea provided passive cooling, but further tests this year might place a vessel neare [sic] hydroelectric power sources off the coast of Florida or Europe.
However, my concern is that they are short-sighted in their research (quoted below from TFA).
The group put one server rack inside a cylindrical vessel, named Leona Philpot after a character in the Halo Xbox game. The eight-foot (2.4m) diameter cylinder was filled with unreactive nitrogen gas, and sat on the sea bed 30 ft (9m) down, connected to land by a fiber optic cable.
According to a report in the New York Times, the vessel was loaded with sensors to prove that servers would continue working the vessel wouldn’t leak, and would not affect local marine life.
What they did was deploying only ONE vessel, and then claimed that there is NO EFFECT on marine life. But then they are talking about MASS PRODUCTION. I understand that in a very small scale, there may not be any effect, which is similar to geothermal. However, what would be the effect for having plenty in o
Sorry (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry for hijacking this article, but I would like to say that since the latest takeover, we have seen much higher quality articles than we saw pre-takeover. The articles all appear to follow the "News for Nerds. News that matters." tagline that Slashdot used to follow. It is early, but I am cautiously optimistic that things are getting better.
Keep up the good work.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, do you know my grandfather? How do you know he's breathing?
Here's a hint, genius: he doesn't breathe because he's dead, you insensitive clod!
repost - for reference only (Score:2)
Hello, and THINK ABOUT YOUR BREATHING
Yes that's right, THINK ABOUT YOUR BREATHING. Why you might ask? Well it's simple!
Your brain usually takes care of breathing FOR you, but whenever you remember this, YOU MUST MANUALLY BREATH! If you don't you will DIE.
There are also MANY variations of this. For example, think about:
BLINKING!
SWALLOWING SALIVA!
HOW YOUR FEET FEEL IN YOUR SOCKS!
In conclusion, the THINK ABOUT YOUR BREATHING troll is simply unbeatable. These 4 words can be thrown randomly into article text trolls, into sigs, into anything, and once seen, WILL FORCE THE VICTIM TO TAKE CARE OF HIS BREATHING MANUALLY! This goes far beyond the simple annoying or insulting trolls of yesteryear.
In fact, by EVEN RESPONDING to this troll, you are proving that IT HAS CLAIMED ANOTHER VICTIM -- YOU! [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
It can't keep up. Timothy has posted every single article since early Thursday. He will have to sleep at some point. The new overlords must be holding his family hostage.
Under the sea (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
It's so catchy
There's no escapin', this song's amazin'
And so catchy
You'll never get it out your head
You'll sing the words until you are dead
Even when you sleep, it plays on repeat
It's so catchy
So what? The message is kinda sexist
Girls don't need brain cells, just big ole seashells
Also don't be fat. But you'll ignore that
'Cause It's catchy
So great! After they sunk Nokia... (Score:1)
they're going to sink the cloud. Congrats, I suppose.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://natick.research.microso... [microsoft.com]
Now, I wonder how the cooling is done.
They've really gone off the deep end this time... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Windows are a reliability problem, in both undersea vessels and PCs.
Open Waters.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Maintenance must be a killer... Having to dive to fix a problem. I am not even making fun of Microsoft track record of less than stellar reliability to make 5 years of uptime seem possible.
But connections to the systems, Cable get corroded or broken.
Pirates you have millions of dollars of equipment under the sea mostly unguarded. If they may want to bring it up to steal and sell the hardware... Or they could hack into it the hard way (To get information from it)
Re:Open Waters.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Open Waters.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Modern data center modules no longer require physical maintenance. You load up on redundancy based on MTTF, turn it on, administer remotely, then replace the entire thing in 5 or so years. Redundancy and replacement is cheaper than maintenance.
Re:Open Waters.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
...minus the redundency. Which is why it never works.
Re: (Score:2)
That sounds more like wishful thinking and marketing hype than reality.
Because I know people who routinely deal with situations where people go into data centers to fix stuff.
See, if you build that much redundancy you have to pay for it up front. And in my experience, companies aren't that forward looking.
The hands off data center entirely done remotely? What percent of real situations does that describe? I'm betting it's pretty low.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Meh, just another buzzcronym to learn and cert exam fee...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, something tells me that if this was Apple or Google doing this, the sentiment would be a lot different...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
pros:
1. cooling is not an issue (it's cool!)
2. immune to all surface weather and earthquakes
3. no property taxes and no land lord
cons:
1. sharks
Looks like the pros win!
Re: (Score:3)
cons:
2. Pirates
3. Russian Subs
4. American Subs
5. Depth chargers
International waters are rather lawless areas. The US Navy may attempt to protect it from someone else (Microsoft being an american company) however they are under no obligation to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
Earthquakes have no effect under water?!?
Re: (Score:2)
I had the same basic question, "What is the benefit here?" Skimming through the linked article, there is a sort of an answer:
Underwater data centers can be cooled by the surrounding water, and could also be powered by wave or tidal energy
I don't know if it's really much more efficient than having normal cooling systems and power generated by an external tidal power system, but it might not be completely pointless and stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
I had the same basic question, "What is the benefit here?" Skimming through the linked article, there is a sort of an answer:
Underwater data centers can be cooled by the surrounding water, and could also be powered by wave or tidal energy
I don't know if it's really much more efficient than having normal cooling systems and power generated by an external tidal power system, but it might not be completely pointless and stupid.
The wave or tidal energy part makes it a zero sum side effect on the local environment.
If energy comes to you via waves or tides, it is expended via friction, changes in potential energy, sound and vibration, etc. and ends up as heat.
If you take that energy, use it, and expel it as heat, you don't change a whole lot. The specific location of that heat, and perhaps delay it a little bit.
True, if you are piping in electricity from land somewhere, you do heat the ocean around the pod some. Based on wha
Re: (Score:2)
I don't understand the complaint about internet connectivity; aside from connecting to the people on land using such a data center, their internet connectivity would be the same as it's always been. I don't think these are necessary for remote areas, but in that instance, it would be a localized data center, perhaps because there's slow, or no, internet connectivity. And the benefit would be a modular system that is passively water cooled (dramatically lowering power requirements), which seems to ideally
Re: (Score:2)
Now you may be right, of course, but here's where my (perhaps limited) mind is taking me: OK, so you connect local folks to this submarine data center. What can it have in it? Maybe a f
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting arguments. Maybe this project is just a PR stunt. It sounds cool and forward looking, and maybe it's being publicized to make Azure (which, face it, has a huge marketing budget) seem cool. I think Amazon's 60 Minutes puff piece on delivery drones falls into this category, so why not undersea data centers - and self-driving cars for that matter, Google...
I have no doubt the underlying projects have some serious futurists supporting them inside these huge corporations, but perhaps even that sup
Re: (Score:3)
Passive water cooling is simply a whole lot easier, and with these units you can just "drop" them in and pick them up later on... If you're not near water, these units are pointless, but if you are, it's still a lot easier. If you're talking about a remote location, I'm think along the lines of research where your data center is local instead of only accessible over a slow internet connection. You drop a unit somewhere, collect data for a few years, then pull it all back to analyze.
Even just in general, a
Re: (Score:1)
If it helps, my first thought was CDN.
Re: (Score:1)
Open waters are asking for trouble:
1: Legal issues. If the data center is located even remotely near international waters, that data center then belongs to who has the biggest guns. Plus, it doesn't take much for someone to destroy it out of spite. Unlike the land where there can be guards or at least a few Knightscope models to look for trespassers, sea patrols are pretty expensive.
2: People forget about barnacles and other critters calling intake ducts home. These things can clog pipes up very quick
Re: (Score:3)
Huh? (Score:2)
So their portable data center is about the size of a container. Why not put it on dry land? Certainly renting ground the size of a container from someone has to be cheaper than running undersea cables. This seems like a stunt, not a business plan.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
So their portable data center is about the size of a container. Why not put it on dry land? Certainly renting ground the size of a container from someone has to be cheaper than running undersea cables. This seems like a stunt, not a business plan.
But this is a sunk cost.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
But this is a sunk cost.
Even so, on this whole investment, they must be... underwater.
The project is probably run by someone young, who is still... wet behind the ears.
Sorry. I'm just... fishing for karma. I'll say goodbye now... *waves*
Cooling (Score:1)
One of the major costs of running a data center is keeping it cool. It's always cool (relatively speaking) underwater. You could pump sea water to a land-based data center, but that requires pumps, pipes, etc that need maintenance and extra power.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Cold ocean water transfers heat away from the container much more efficiently than warm air would. A cable might be more expensive than rent, but is it more expensive than rent + air conditioning?
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, but why not just run a pipe into the ocean to suck up some coolant?
Re: (Score:2)
Actually... if you don't have to pay someone for land, then you are only paying for the data link going to the container(s)...
I would imagine that link *could* be cheaper than land cost in some places. Plus you never really have to worry about hurricanes or earthquakes wrecking your equipment.
Re: (Score:2)
There are earthquakes in the ocean, and anchors cut cables on a distressingly regular basis.
Update - Mimcrosoft Video (Score:4, Informative)
Old News (Score:4, Insightful)
This is really old news. Using deep-ocean installations to nominally negate the costs of cooling in data centers had been around forever.
And energy-harvesting by use of undersea currents, tidal motions, or hydrothermal vents has been around forever, too. (Geothermal energy, anyone?)
This article has nothing new, but its author's suggestion that co-locating the 'pod'-type data centers near undersea thermal-emission sites is flat-out stupid. An umbilicus to land, eventually to an internet trunk-line is required. We can pipe around photons and electrons with ease. So why, oh why, was the writer forced to fill column-space with this nit-witted statement?
There are plenty of reasons to emplace various things at-depth in our oceans, simply for the heat-removal aspect alone. Below 400 m it's all pretty much below -3C. Using service-life maintenance-free modules is a great idea —It is not new.
Arrrrggh! (Score:2)
Welcome to Davy Jones BitLocker matey!
Cooling shouldn't be that hard (Score:1)
Anchors Aweigh (Score:3)