Microsoft begins underwater data centre experiment

[smurfy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44368813

[Zero-Point]

I see they're adapting Apple's "good luck fixing it if it breaks" policy.

[Scratch]

Also adopting mapple's underwater facilities

https://media.giphy.com/media/xT5LMCey2WshvVXQgU/giphy.mp4

[Saxon]

I don't really see this working out tbh, but the research could probably be applied to other fields like the space program eventually.

[LoneWolf_Recon]

The energy savings are there as cooling is a big chunk of data center power draw but I'm worried as to the long term responsibility of it.

If this is scaled up, then companies should be held accountable for bringing old data centers back to the surface instead of just letting them become underwater e-waste.

[Mitsuma]

Considering that they pretty much have to be somewhat close to a coast I don't think they can get away with just leaving that big tube laying down there as waste.
It is probably also worth it to recover the hardware if that ever scaled up to some further away place.

[ZombieDawgs]

This works in short term but they should really be looking into permenant sturctures that can be raised for maintenance imo.

[pebkac]

Yeah, something like that is closer to what I imagined when I read the thread title. I thought there'd at least be space for an employee to get inside for maintenance. But instead they're literally sealing a bunch of hardware in a can, sinking the entire thing and hoping for the best.

[Thelurker1234]

Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't looking at that in the future.

This right now is likely just an attempt to figure out if the decreased cooling costs, and theoretically lower maintenance costs from the air changes are worth it.