为什么将数据中心建在海底(全球首个海底数据中心谁生产的)

The main reason is to cool down, because the data center is actually running some computers that process data. Under the current scientific and technological conditions, as long as these computers run at high intensity, they will definitely generate heat, so Corresponding cooling measures must also be taken. Currently, it is popular to place them in air-conditioned rooms.

But those small data centers can barely operate if they are placed in air-conditioned rooms. For a data center as big as Microsoft, ordinary air-conditioned rooms are definitely not enough, so they are generally Data centers will be set up in high latitudes, or as Microsoft is doing now, data centers will be built directly in water, where the temperature of the water itself is relatively low.

Actually, Microsoft is not the only one who started this practice of sinking computers into the sea. There are "water-cooled chassis" on the market, which is actually the same as this. Buy a large water tank, others put goldfish in it, and the water-cooled case is placed in the case. The heat is just a little bit warmer. This is a relatively mature technology at present.

And if Microsoft puts the data center under the sea, it can save a lot of air-conditioning electricity bills and site costs. Microsoft's data center must be very large, so the air-conditioning needs to be very low. In such a large space, With such a low temperature, how much electricity does it cost to keep the air conditioner running all year round?

This is not just a matter of money. If the data center is mature enough, many technology companies can put data centers into the sea in the future, which can save the earth. A lot of resources, and the water is environmentally friendly, and it will not cause a lot of waste of resources on the ground. This is a multi-purpose thing, and it is a positive measure for the future.

According to US media reports, Microsoft has just thrown one of its large data centers into the seabed near Scotland. This is a project called Natick. It is equivalent to the technology of a submarine. The server is installed in a capsule and connected to the shore using an undersea cable. It mainly uses flowing seawater to solve the heat dissipation problem of big data centers. It is both economical and environmentally friendly. As long as the technology passes the test, the benefits will be endless. You must know that the power consumption of a large data center is quite staggering. If the project is successful, it will help companies reduce huge expenditures on cooling problems in big data centers, save energy and reduce carbon emissions. So he defined it as a major measure to save energy and save the earth.

Microsoft has deployed a data center underwater. The purpose of this project is to study the feasibility of using renewable energy to provide Internet services to coastal cities and increase Internet speeds.

The data center is located 36 meters below the sea surface and is powered by submarine cables running from Orkney. This project is part of Project Natick, in which Microsoft deployed the data center in the waters near Scotland's Orkney Islands. The project's data center consists of 864 servers, which are housed in a waterproof container about 40 feet long.

I just didn't know that such a large data center would What is the service life? How to solve the maintenance problem? Will the cost be higher? It will take time to prove whether it will have any impact on the local environment. But its significance is extraordinary and it is likely to give us more room for imagination. In the future, there may not only be the seabed, but also other places that are more suitable for providing cooling for big data centers, waiting to be discovered.

On June 1, 2018, Microsoft sank a capsule-shaped data center about 12 meters long and nearly 3 meters in diameter into Scottish waters.

This humming data center under the sea is equipped with a total of 864 servers and can store about 5 million movies. It will provide high-speed cloud computing power and internet connectivity to the coastal areas of the Scottish Isles.

Microsoft said that sinking the data center into the sea was mainly due to cost considerations.

In order to maintain a suitable temperature in the computer room and avoid the downtime of thousands of servers, technology companies often have to pay huge air conditioning costs. Therefore, more and more companies are building data centers in sparsely populated high latitudes, hoping to use outside air to reduce cooling costs. In addition, the costs of land rent, labor, water and electricity are all headaches.

In contrast, the lower temperature of the seafloor is like a natural refrigerator.

In order to ensure that the data center can operate smoothly underwater, Microsoft specially cooperated with an experienced marine engineering company to use some submarine technology to maintain cooling temperatures. It only took less than 90 days from production to final launch, and the time cost was also greatly reduced.

The project manager said that more than half of the world's population lives 120 miles from the coast. Placing data centers in nearby waters can provide residents in coastal areas with a faster and smoother Internet experience over a short distance. .

Environmental protection is also a big highlight. The place where the data center is placed this time is the Orkney Islands located in northeastern Scotland, UK. Renewable energy sources such as wind energy, solar energy and tidal energy provide electricity for the island's 10,000 residents.

This was originally just a whimsical idea of ​​a Microsoft employee. Inspired by the cables and optical fibers buried under the sea, the employee began to wonder if it would be feasible to move the data center underwater.

In 2014, this idea was officially put into research, and a concept prototype was built in August 2015, which was tested for three months near the coast of California, USA.

The first phase of testing proved that the underwater data center concept is feasible, and the focus at this stage is to study whether it is environmentally and economically feasible.

Over the next 12 months, Microsoft will monitor and record data center operations from aspects such as power consumption, internal humidity and temperature. Whether it will bring pollution to the marine environment also needs further observation.

Microsoft has also set a goal for this data center under the sea in Scotland, hoping that it can operate without human assistance within five years. At the end of the data center's life, it will be recycled to reduce waste.