Microsoft's Project Natick: Testing Ocean Data Centres (2016)

In February 2016, Microsoft unveiled "Project Natick," an experimental research initiative investigating the feasibility of deploying self-contained, submerged data centres on the ocean floor to achieve sustainable cooling and lower latency for coastal populations.

The 2015 Prototype Trial

Microsoft tested a prototype vessel named "Leona Philpot" (referencing a character from the Xbox game series Halo) submerged one kilometre off the US Pacific coast for 105 days in 2015. The vessel operated flawlessly, demonstrating that cold seawater could provide zero-energy cooling without requiring fresh water resources.

Sustainable Future Cloud Architecture

Because over half the world's population resides within 200 kilometres of an ocean coastline, underwater data centres offered the potential to reduce data transmission latency while harnessing offshore renewable energy sources like tidal and wind power.