The tech giant has just submerged a bunch of machines off the coast of Scotland.
The news: The BBC reports that Microsoft has encased a tiny data center with 12 racks of servers in a cylinder that’ll sit on the ocean floor for up to five years. The idea is to use the sea as a natural coolant, helping to reduce the energy needed to run the center.
Sunk cost: An undersea cable will bring power to the servers and ship data back to shore. But if anything goes wrong with a machine, it can’t be replaced—the cost of hauling the cylinder up is simply too great.
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