Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years

Re:Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two y... by jerf on Monday September 14, 2020 @12:37PM (#24472143)

There's quite a lot of ocean that doesn't hardly have a "native habitat". Most ocean doesn't look like a coral reef, most ocean looks like water sitting on top of dirt.

Unfortunately, the living parts of oceans are also the parts that tend to be easy to get to, and putting stuff farther away will be more expensive. But careful placement may be able to mitigate that.

It is still ultimately a 3D environment where the vast, vast bulk of the 3D environment is not thriving with heat-sensitive life. Our 2D surface intuition misleads us here. Our mental images of the ocean are of the exceptional locations, not the common ones.

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Re:Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two y... by gowld on Monday September 14, 2020 @01:23PM (#24472674)

Our 2D intuition leads back on track though, since 2D (or really 1D, or whatever fractal dumention represents thecoastliine) is almost certainly where data centers will get built, not on the middle of the pacific.

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Re:Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two y... by jerf on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @01:57PM (#24484382)

3D is relevant to the heat dissipation, and floating submerged data centers doesn't sound so difficult, at least, once you have the idea of a data center not on land. Fortunately, you don't have to go to the middle of the pacific to get away from the living parts of the ocean. You just want to get off the continental shelves, which is easier in some places than others.

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