The Rise of Underwater Data Centres: Cooling Tech beneath the Sea

Baasma Wafa  Jadetimes Staff

B. Wafa is a Jadetimes news reporter covering technology

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Image Credit: Microsoft’s Project Natick

As the world's demand for data keeps growing, tech firms are plunging into uncharted waters — or rather, underwater. Underwater data centers are on the horizon as a potential answer to increased demand while ensuring environmental sustainability.

These data centres are closed buildings positioned under the surface of the ocean, utilizing the natural cooling qualities of seawater. Cooling is one of the largest energy costs for conventional land-based data centres, which use enormous amounts of power to prevent servers from overheating. Operating underwater, firms can significantly minimize energy consumption and lower operational expenses.

One of the frontrunners in this direction is Microsoft, which announced its "Project Natick" project to discover the feasibility of underwater data centers. In 2020, following a two-year test on the Scottish island chain Orkney, Microsoft successfully pulled back its submerged data center with a robust outcome: the servers performed eight times more reliably than comparable servers onshore.

The advantages go beyond energy efficiency. Underwater data centres are modular and can be installed nearer coastal population hubs, lowering latency — the time it takes for data to travel. They are also expandable, with more modules being added as demand increases.

In addition, underwater data centres avoid some of the onshore issues like space constraints, increasing real estate prices, and public opposition to big data centre projects.

As world data consumption is projected to keep rising sharply, particularly with the speedy growth of artificial intelligence and cloud services, organizations are already looking to underwater deployment as a key part of their long-term plans.

While not yet at full maturity, underwater data technology is a groundbreaking move toward providing data infrastructure with a more sustainable and flexible approach in a more digitalized world.