{"id":236139,"date":"2016-11-14T11:32:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T19:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-project&#038;p=236139"},"modified":"2026-02-05T06:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:37:06","slug":"natick","status":"publish","type":"msr-project","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/natick\/","title":{"rendered":"Natick"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"mb-3 moray-highlight\">\n\t<div class=\"card-img-overlay mx-lg-0\">\n\t\t<div class=\"card-background  has-background- card-background--full-bleed\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Project-Natick-Scotland-035.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Microsoft's Project Natick  at the launch site in the city of Stromness on Orkney Island, Scotland on Sunday May 27, 2018. (Photography by Scott Eklund\/Red Box Pictures)\" style=\"object-position: 41% 57%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Project-Natick-Scotland-035.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Project-Natick-Scotland-035-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Project-Natick-Scotland-035-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Project-Natick-Scotland-035-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<!-- Foreground -->\n\t\t<div class=\"card-foreground d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 px-g px-lg-0\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Container -->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 align-self-center\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Card wrapper -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-100 w-lg-col-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- Card -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card material-md-card py-5 px-md-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-body \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n<h1 id=\"natick\" class=\"h2\">Natick<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Researching the feasibility of subsea datacenters powered by offshore renewable energy<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Established in 2015, Project Natick seeks to understand the benefits and difficulties in deploying subsea datacenters worldwide. We did so by designing, building, and deploying our own prototype subsea datacenter in the ocean, all in about a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In phase two we developed a datacenter four times the size of phase 1, with over 36 times the compute power!&nbsp; It was deployed in June 2018 at the European Marine Energy Center off the coast of Orkney, UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See the full details on our complete site: <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"http:\/\/natick.research.microsoft.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/natick.research.microsoft.com<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Video playback requires cookie consent\" data-video-id=\"AvvJc4Uw3aA\" data-poster=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/AvvJc4Uw3aA\/maxresdefault.jpg\"><iframe aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"Microsoft tests Project Natick, self-sustaining underwater datacenter\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/AvvJc4Uw3aA?start=2&feature=oembed&rel=0&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__overlay\"><button class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__play\"><svg width=\"42\" height=\"42\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><circle fill=\"#000\" opacity=\".556\" cx=\"21\" cy=\"21\" r=\"21\"\/><path stroke=\"#FFF\" d=\"M27.5 22l-12 8.5v-17z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><span class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__label\">Video playback requires cookie consent<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Video playback requires cookie consent\" data-video-id=\"L2oJw1a_qEM\" data-poster=\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/L2oJw1a_qEM\/maxresdefault.jpg\"><iframe aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"Microsoft's underwater datacenter: Project Natick\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/L2oJw1a_qEM?feature=oembed&rel=0&enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><div class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__overlay\"><button class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__play\"><svg width=\"42\" height=\"42\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><circle fill=\"#000\" opacity=\".556\" cx=\"21\" cy=\"21\" r=\"21\"\/><path stroke=\"#FFF\" d=\"M27.5 22l-12 8.5v-17z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><span class=\"yt-consent-placeholder__label\">Video playback requires cookie consent<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transitioned | Project Natick seeks to understand the benefits and difficulties in deploying subsea datacenters worldwide &#8212; we designed, built, and deployed our own prototype subsea datacenter in the ocean, all in about a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":503972,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"research-area":[198583,13548,13552,13547,13568],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[261670],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-236139","msr-project","type-msr-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-ecology-environment","msr-research-area-economics","msr-research-area-hardware-devices","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-research-area-technology-for-emerging-markets","msr-locale-en_us","msr-archive-status-complete"],"msr_project_start":"","related-publications":[690495,910329],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[1159720,1159724,1159727,1159730,1159734],"related-groups":[470874,768895,901101],"related-events":[],"related-opportunities":[],"related-posts":[502553],"related-articles":[],"tab-content":[],"slides":[],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Eric Peterson","user_id":31753,"people_section":"Group 1","alias":"ericpete"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Spencer Fowers","user_id":33581,"people_section":"Group 1","alias":"sfowers"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Mike Shepperd","user_id":32920,"people_section":"Group 1","alias":"mikeshep"}],"msr_research_lab":[1161007],"msr_impact_theme":["Resilience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/236139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-project"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/236139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161528,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/236139\/revisions\/1161528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=236139"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=236139"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=236139"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=236139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}