Microsoft just finished a three-month experiment operating an underwater data center.A server rack  with the power of about 300PCs was placed into a water-tight  steel container and lowered into the ocean off the coast of central California. The unusual experiment was launched because current data centers are unpleasantly inefficient.They're built where energy and land are cheap (not close to where people actually live).And they waste so much energy cooling their massive computers.The ocean can solve those problems.The cold ocean floor sufficiently cools the computing components inside the pod.And since most people live near the ocean,placing data centers under water could potentially increase the speed at which customers could access the information stored in Microsoft's cloud. The experiment was so successful that Microsoft operated the underwater data center for 75days longer than it had planned to.The next step is to get a larger pod,with about four times the computing power,under the ocean for testing.Unlike the first experiment,the next pod will also be equipped with turbines,which will transform the ocean's currents into electricity.It's not clear when,if ever,underwater data centers will become a possible product."Our first experiment was like dipping our pinkie toe in the water,and now we're going for the big toe,"said Lee,corporate vice president of Microsoft Research. Microsoft is still analyzing the environmental impacts of the study.Data centers are both hot and loud,which could have damaging effects on ocean life.Microsoft found that the noise its underwater data center produced was drowned out by nearby shrimp and crabs.The data centers are also built from recyclable materials,and Microsoft believes that the total carbon footprint of underwater data centers will be"dramatically lower"than current land-based centers. Given the growth in the cloud,industry analysts believe that most of the world's data centers have yet to be built.But building a data center takes at least two years-an  eternity in the fast-developing tech industry.As a result,Microsoft builds its data centers with the future in mind,installing far more computing power and space than it currently needs. Lee believes that going under water can shift the building of data centers from construction projects to manufacturing jobs."What if we could mass-produce these pods on an assembly line?"he thought."We could deliver a data center,from conception to operation,in 90days.That's dramatically different than what's happening today." What is the advantage of an underwater data center?
It can be lowered to the ocean floor easily. It can cool computing components automatically. It can be built close to the place where people live. It can make information easily accessible to people.