In this episode of the podcast, Duncan McLeod interviews Ben Cutler, the head of Microsoft’s Project Natick, a research project to determine the feasibility of building subsea data centres.

Cutler and a team from Microsoft have deployed a subsea data centre in the north of Scotland, which they are using to ascertain whether building submarine data centres makes practical and financial sense.

In the podcast, Cutler explains where the idea came from, the two phases of the project so far, what Microsoft has learnt and where the project is going.

The Scottish test facility is powered entirely by renewable energy and the idea is that future sites could tap into energy harvested from the waves.

Cutler explains the costs involved, what the test facility is being used for and the mechanics involved in deploying computing resources.

Don’t miss this fascinating discussion!