Could Underwater Data Centers (UDCs) be the future of data storage?
Compared with the ocean, areas with a low temperature on land tend to be more remote and are restricted by significant territorial barriers. These conditions make it impossible for data centers to operate that are much needed for the development of 5G, AI, cloud computing and smart city management - especially in developed coastal cities.
Especially given nearly half of the world's population lives within 200 kilometers from the coast. A natural solution for achieving low latency and efficient energy consumption is the use of Underwater Data Centers (UDCs).
Tests conducted during the early stages of a trial project conclude that UDCs can deliver a number of different benefits. UDCs are indeed reliable, practical, and uses energy sustainably.
Key benefits of UDCs include:
Faster project deployment
With the insatiable demand for data and data management, speed is of the essence to ensure stable and reliable support of networks and their productivity. In terms of project deployment, the ultra-short 90-day cabin deployment and construction of a UDC can be achieved significantly faster than traditional IDCs at less cost. And that cost savings is is maintained with PUE...
Low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rate
One current UDC project has shown a rack density delivering a power density of 15kw per cabinet and 35kw per cabinet with small prototypes, achieving an overall PUE of less than or equal to 1.15. Land-based liquid cooling data centers usually adopt a cold plate liquid cooling approach for this level of rack density, with an overall PUE of between 1.25-1.35 (this applies to areas with hot summers and warm winters, while PUE in cooler places will be lower). Therefore, when the power density of an IT rack is less than or equal to 35KW, UDCs have an obvious energy-saving advantage (UDC's WUE=0).
A low PUE rate is defined when power density is larger or equal to 35kw per cabinet. However, with the current carbon emission policies, the application of renewable energy such as wind energy and wave energy is increasingly being adopted, and this kind of breakthrough will give UDC an extra advantage.
Greater data center privacy and reliability
Through online operation and maintenance, unmanned data center management can minimize the potential need for human interference. Furthermore, they offer greater data center privacy and reliability in comparison with traditional IDCs.
It's exciting times for the advancement in data centre technology and achieving a more ESG compliant operating model so the Web 3.0 economy can continue to grow and flourish sustainably.
Higher level of data security
UDC's data cabins are physically secure under constant temperature, humidity and pressure, as well as free from oxygen, dust, human intrusion and pests. The cabins are also filled with inert gas for fire prevention, significantly improving the operational security of the data center.
As personal data becomes more valuable, data storage, computing, and transmission demand dramatically increase.This poses a huge challenge for the secure storage, computing, and data transmission. The independent sealed cabins of a UDC can address all these concerns and provide natural, secure protection through the way how they are set up physically.
Decentralized data processing demands greater reliability and bandwidth at a lower cost. The data cabins can support the deployment of a physically distributed network. Such cabins are filled with inert gas and come with high reliability. Test data also proves that the server failure rate is 1/8 of that of data centers on land.
As one of the Asia’s leading next-generation infrastructure-as-a-service providers, Atlas is developing cutting-edge technology and launching ground-breaking test projects to set the tone for future advanced technologies and push the boundaries of Web3.
One of our projects is the research and development of a hyper-convergence platform for the Lingxi brain-like computing network, harnessing Tianji brain-like chip core technology from top university. This pioneering research into the human brain and technology exploration will further advance our ability to connect the human brain to avatars in the metaverse.
Another example is our partnership with BOINC, the world's largest edge computing NGO, who have allowed Atlas to become involved in many different types of scientific research, such as global diseases, climate change, discovery of pulsars, and more.
Atlas advocates sustainable growth. This partnership embodies our dedication towards low-carbon, sustainable development and building of a distributed Internet infrastructure to benefit the future of humankind.