Project Natick
A research project to determine the feasibility of subsea datacenters powered by offshore renewable energy.
Selected Project Natick coverage and publications from the original project site.
Phase 2 publications
- Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably (opens in new tab)
- Ars Technica: Microsoft declares its underwater data center test was a success (opens in new tab)
- BBC: Microsoft’s underwater data centre resurfaces after two years (opens in new tab)
- The Economist: Davy Jones’s Data-center (opens in new tab)
- MSN: Underwater Data Centers Part Of Microsoft’s Future Growth (opens in new tab)
- CNN: Microsoft pulled its underwater data center out of the sea in Scotland (opens in new tab)
- DCD: Microsoft retrieves Project Natick data center after two years underwater (opens in new tab)
- Data Center Frontier: Microsoft: Servers in Our Underwater Data Center Are Super-Reliable (opens in new tab)
- GeekWire: Microsoft pulls underwater data center back to the surface (opens in new tab)
- Neowin: Microsoft’s Project Natick finds that underwater datacenters are reliable and effective (opens in new tab)
- PCMag UK: Microsoft Retrieves Its Sea Floor Data Center After 2 Years (opens in new tab)
- TechCrunch: Microsoft’s Project Natick underwater data center experiment confirms viability (opens in new tab)
- TechRadar: Microsoft’s deep-sea experiment revealed server data (opens in new tab)
- The Verge: Microsoft’s underwater server experiment resurfaces after two years (opens in new tab)
- Wired: Turns out dumping data centres in the ocean could be a good idea (opens in new tab)
Earlier Phase 2 publications
- Microsoft’s undersea datacenter helps the hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine (opens in new tab)
- Natick was used to test Microsoft Research’s first post-quantum cryptography software (opens in new tab)
- BBC: Microsoft sinks data centre off Orkney (opens in new tab)
- Business Insider: Photos show how Microsoft took a big step forward (opens in new tab)
- The Verge: Microsoft sinks a data center off the Scottish coast (opens in new tab)
- Gizmodo: Microsoft’s Newest Data Center Is a Giant Metal Can at the Bottom of the Sea (opens in new tab)
- Huffington Post: Microsoft Has Dropped A Data Centre To The Bottom Of The Ocean (opens in new tab)
- CNBC: Microsoft deploys an underwater submarine-like data center (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft News: Under the sea, Microsoft tests a datacenter that’s quick to deploy (opens in new tab)
- Azure Blog: Monitoring environmental conditions near underwater datacenters using Deep Learning (opens in new tab)
Phase 1 publications
- The Liquid Grid: Underwater Datacenters (opens in new tab)
- IEEE Spectrum: Want an Energy-Efficient Data Center? Build It Underwater (opens in new tab)
- New York Times: Microsoft Plumbs Ocean Depths to Test Underwater Data Center (opens in new tab)
- Fortune: Microsoft Test Drives (Dives?) Submarine Data Center (opens in new tab)
- VentureBeat: Microsoft’s Project Natick brings data centers underwater (opens in new tab)
- Microsoft News Center: Microsoft research project puts cloud in ocean for the first time (opens in new tab)
- Digital Trends: Microsoft is making a digital Atlantis (opens in new tab)
- PC World: Microsoft’s audacious Project Natick wants to submerge your data (opens in new tab)
- Business Insider: Microsoft has a crazy project to build massive data centres under the sea (opens in new tab)
- ABC Online: Microsoft goes underwater to test mega internet data centre technology (opens in new tab)
- Popular Science: This Is Why Microsoft Is Putting Data Servers In The Ocean (opens in new tab)
- Tech Insider: This is Microsoft’s plan to power the internet from under the sea (opens in new tab)