PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The success of Microsoft ’ s Project Natick could serve as a blueprint for future data centre construction and delivery
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Mention data centres and your mind jumps to subterranean light-flickering units lined up row after row , often unremarkable in their profile if increasingly essential in today ’ s digital-oriented world . From the largest multinational to the humblest remote worker , they are the technological glue as we all strive for improved reliability and performance .
For IT giant Microsoft , increased data demands have led to some out of the box thinking – not so much in the cloud , but beneath the sea . Project Natick involved lowering a shipping containersized unit 117 feet onto the sea floor off Scotland ’ s Orkney Islands to assess the feasibility of underwater data centres .
The Northern Isles underwater datacenter was manufactured by Naval Group and its subsidiary Naval Energies , experts in naval defense and marine renewable energy . Green Marine , an Orkney Islandbased firm , supported Naval Group and Microsoft on the deployment , maintenance , monitoring and retrieval of the datacentre , which Microsoft ’ s Special Projects team operated for two years ( the
AUTUMN / WINTER 2020