Microsoft's Underwater Datacenter Experiment Ends

[engine]

Microsoft's underwater datacenter experiment [webmasterworld.com] has ended and has proved a success from one respect. The server failures was minimal, which it believes is because the sealed cylinder was filled with nitrogen, and there were no engineers bumping into the servers.

Microsoft is cautious about saying when an underwater data centre might be a commercial product, but is confident that it has proved the idea has value.
"We think that we're past the point where this is a science experiment," says Ben Cutler.
"Now it's simply a question of what do we want to engineer - would it be a little one, or would it be a large one?"

[bbc.co.uk...]

[graeme_p]

Even if they do not use it further, its now a sunk cost.

Sounds like an expensive experiment, a smaller business might have been under water after trying that.

[engine]

Let's look at the positives. The world will build more datacenters so this experiment, if proven, might go towards saving energy.
Only big companies, such as Microsoft, can afford to experiment this way.