5 ms·

Similar to Azure talking about developing underwater datacenters

samstave 8y ago
Did you know that eric schmidt funds a deep sea drone submersible project out of alameda to map and sensor the oceans... its funded under his and his wifes foundation, but basically its a secret project to map the oceans. They want to be first to own all that data
- fizwhiz 8y ago
  Got a citation handy by any chance?
  - udpkts 8y ago
    It's called Schmidt Ocean Institute... not a huge secret.
- whatshisface 8y ago
  The odds that the military already owns a lot of it (from operating submarine sonar and all of the things that come with it) are pretty high.
- throwaway67895 8y ago
  That project has been defunct for years. The company that claimed they could do it (and never even got started) has pivoted to Navy research projects.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  A 501(c)(3) dedicated to open sharing of data is an odd vehicle for trying to competitively own data.
derefr 8y ago
Eh. Space is just a place that's annoying to ship to. (With the one key advantage of having line-of-sight to arbitrary deployed IoT devices.) "Underwater", meanwhile, is more of a mode of operation / design for data centers, with the goal of that simplifying (and decreasing costs for) cooling. An underwater data center doesn't imply that the data center is actually off-shore to any large degree. I'd imagine they'd look more like undersea-cable landing points, built "into" a beach.
- matte_black 8y ago
  This will accelerate global warming and kill off fragile ecosystems from all the heat being radiated to the oceans.
  - kevinlou 8y ago
    I tried looking for environmental impact studies for Microsoft's data center project, but all I could find were object tracking models that their team built for tracking marine life. If a published study on this exists, I'd love to take a look.
  - haney 8y ago
    Maybe, but it could also reduce fossil fuels used to operate less efficient cooling systems in traditional data centers. I’d love to see a breakdown on the impact of each approach.
  - SiempreViernes 8y ago
    Not likely, water is a good heat conductor so there will just be a area of slightly warmer water near the outlet. You might get a micro ecology with some tropical fish far from their normal grounds but nothing dramatic will happen. It'll certainly not be worse for the environment than any normal data centre, unless it springs a leak and something toxic escapes.
deleted 8y ago
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Qworg 8y ago
Underwater data centers make a great deal of sense - close to customers (low latency), fast deployments (decision to power on in 90 days), and, of course, cooling efficiencies. I expect them to actually happen if Phase 2 goes well. Then again, I'm a bit biased - I worked on both Phase 1 and 2.

Did you know that eric schmidt funds a deep sea drone submersible project out of alameda to map and sensor the oceans... its funded under his and his wifes foundation, but basically its a secret project to map the oceans. They want to be first to own all that data

fizwhiz 8y ago
Got a citation handy by any chance?
- udpkts 8y ago
  It's called Schmidt Ocean Institute... not a huge secret.
whatshisface 8y ago
The odds that the military already owns a lot of it (from operating submarine sonar and all of the things that come with it) are pretty high.
throwaway67895 8y ago
That project has been defunct for years. The company that claimed they could do it (and never even got started) has pivoted to Navy research projects.
dragonwriter 8y ago
A 501(c)(3) dedicated to open sharing of data is an odd vehicle for trying to competitively own data.

derefr 8y ago

Eh. Space is just a place that's annoying to ship to. (With the one key advantage of having line-of-sight to arbitrary deployed IoT devices.) "Underwater", meanwhile, is more of a mode of operation / design for data centers, with the goal of that simplifying (and decreasing costs for) cooling. An underwater data center doesn't imply that the data center is actually off-shore to any large degree. I'd imagine they'd look more like undersea-cable landing points, built "into" a beach.

matte_black 8y ago
This will accelerate global warming and kill off fragile ecosystems from all the heat being radiated to the oceans.
- kevinlou 8y ago
  I tried looking for environmental impact studies for Microsoft's data center project, but all I could find were object tracking models that their team built for tracking marine life. If a published study on this exists, I'd love to take a look.
- haney 8y ago
  Maybe, but it could also reduce fossil fuels used to operate less efficient cooling systems in traditional data centers. I’d love to see a breakdown on the impact of each approach.
- SiempreViernes 8y ago
  Not likely, water is a good heat conductor so there will just be a area of slightly warmer water near the outlet. You might get a micro ecology with some tropical fish far from their normal grounds but nothing dramatic will happen. It'll certainly not be worse for the environment than any normal data centre, unless it springs a leak and something toxic escapes.

deleted 8y ago

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Qworg 8y ago

Underwater data centers make a great deal of sense - close to customers (low latency), fast deployments (decision to power on in 90 days), and, of course, cooling efficiencies. I expect them to actually happen if Phase 2 goes well. Then again, I'm a bit biased - I worked on both Phase 1 and 2.