864 servers and 27.6 petabytes of storage. These are the tremendous figures that hide the new data center that will be used in Microsoft and is known as Project Natick. So far we have infarct numbers but not surprising. And it is that the face of astonishment remains us to know that this data center is located at 35.6 meters under the sea.
Submerged under tens of meters of water for five years . This will work the system that the company based in Redmond has installed in the bed of the Scottish Sea. A data center that stands out as a bet that serves to claim the use of renewable energy.
Bet on renewables
Being Bill Gates a known philanthropist, defender of our planet at all costs, it is not surprising that Microsoft follow the guidelines of what was his alma mater. And they put it into practice with this data center that located in the always busy North Sea, will use the sea currents to cool the system . The energy used to make it work will come from renewable energy generated in the Orkney Islands.
The reason is well known. These data centers consume a very high amount of energy, especially to cool the equipment. Companies usually install them in climates as cold as possible to minimize cooling needs. We have even seen how some companies, Apple, are committed to self-sufficiency .
It is on the one hand to save on the electricity bill and step, which should always be the first reason, help take care of the environment . And Microsoft are not new to this, because not in vain and conducted a similar test in 2015. They submerged a data center in California for five months.
The current data center includes 12 racks with 864 servers with a total of 27.6 petabytes of storage . A huge amount of space that could be used to store up to 5 million films, for example.
It will be key the first year in which from the company will control all the parameters and the possible environmental impact in detail and if the obtained results are favorable, can open a path in the bet for this type of facilities .