Project Natick
A research project to determine the feasibility of subsea datacenters powered by offshore renewable energy.
Project Natick seeks to understand the benefits and difficulties in deploying subsea datacenters worldwide. Phase two extended the research accomplished in phase one by deploying a full-scale datacenter module in the North Sea, powered by renewable energy.
50% of us live near the coast. Why doesn’t our data?
Phase 2 results
On July 9, 2020, Natick Northern Isles completed its mission at the bottom of the North Sea and was retrieved for analysis. The research showed the following early results:
- Reliability: The servers in Natick Northern Isles showed a failure rate of one-eighth that of the land-based control group.
- Community service: Natick was used to perform COVID-19 research for Folding at Home (opens in new tab) and World Community Grid (opens in new tab).
- Recycling: The steel pressure vessel, heat exchangers, servers, and all other components will be recycled.
- Sea bed: The sea bed is being restored to the same state it was in before deployment.
Contact
General inquiries: natick@microsoft.com
Media inquiries: natick-media@microsoft.com
Headquarters: One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Phase 1 deployment: Pacific coast of the United States
Phase 2 deployment: European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK (opens in new tab)
Project Natick Press Kit (opens in new tab)