Seawater will provide physical security to Microsoft data centers

Microsoft is experimenting with underwater data centers.
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Microsoft’s long-term vision is to be able to create large data centers several miles off the coast, operating 600 feet under the surface with only a network connection. Power would be generated from offshore sources, either from wind power or turbines driven by ocean currents. These data centers would consist of a series of unmanned data center modules, effectively larger versions of the Project Natick deployment.

​While the sustainability profile is excellent, Microsoft is perhaps more focused on the potential business benefits of Project Natick. These include:

• Improved speed and agility, with the ability to deploy within 90 days
• A lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than land-based data centers.
• Low-latency delivery of cloud services to the large populations along coastlines.
• Better physical security than land-based data centers.

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