Most Data Lives in the Cloud. What if it Lived Under the Sea?
vast amounts of data and provide services to hungry consumers.All this infrastructure is expensive to build and run, and has a considerable environmental impact. In search of cost savings, greater sustainability and better service, data center providers are looking to get their feet wet.Tech giant Microsoft and other companies want to relocate data centres into the world’s oceans, submerging computers and networking equipment to take advantage of cheap real estate and cool waters. Is this a good thing? What about the environmental impact? Are we simply replacing one damaging practice with another
Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China
;s preeminent superpower.SubCom, a company born out of a U.S. Cold War project to spy on Soviet submarines, is living a double life.Publicly, it is one of the world’s biggest developers of undersea fiber-optic cables for telecom firms and tech giants like Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta Platforms.Behind the scenes, SubCom is the exclusive undersea cable contractor to the U.S. military, laying a web of internet and surveillance cables across the ocean floor, according to the four people with knowledge of the matter: two SubCom employees and two U.S. Navy staffers. The
Tech File: Dual-Arm AUV Emerges from German Consortium
between the AUV, the control station and the internal business infrastructure.Virtual Co-PilotA virtual co-pilot developed at DFKI's Cognitive Assistance Systems research department supports human personnel in the control station during teleoperation tasks. For this purpose, it is equipped with a Microsoft HoloLens, which can be used either in combination with the control station or as a lightweight separate interaction medium, e.g., on board a ship. Thanks to a holographic 3D representation on the display, the operator is always informed about the status of the AUV and the underwater structure.
China's Guangdong to Move Data Centers Undersea to Cut Power Use
government will lend support for related technological breakthroughs, it added.The plan comes on the heels of efforts by the southern Chinese island province of Hainan, which has commenced work on the world's first undersea commercial data center aiming to complete it in five years.In 2018, Microsoft lowered a non-commercial data center the size of a truck about 35 meters (117 feet) into the sea off Britain. The miniature data center was retrieved last year, and Microsoft declared the experiment a success.Greenpeace has warned that electricity consumption from China's data centers and 5G
Meet NOUS: An Underwater ‘Artificial Mind’
in the National Marine Park of Alonissos Northern Sporades (N.M.P.A.N.S.), with the prospect of extending the EEAX Peristera at Stratoni, Halkidiki. In this direction, image processing and classification tests for the fish fauna observed at the wreck site have already started.In April 2021, Microsoft has chosen to support the biodiversity conservation effort through "NOUS" by providing technical support on AI issues and access to its computing infrastructure in the form of a grant, supporting the proposal "Machine Learning and Real Time Monitoring for the conservation of marine
Moguchaya Named CEO of Earth Science Analytics
joining Earth Science Analytics, Moguchaya worked at the Norwegian unicorn start-up, Cognite, where she was responsible for customer success and research and development. With an MSc in Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, she has also worked as the program manager for Petrel at Schlumberger and Microsoft
Ocean Influencer: Karl Kenny, Kraken Robotics
hard to ensure that his company continually evolves the technology, particularly the ability to work more efficiently and to ‘see’ better underwater, as he understands that the quality of data starts with its collection: “Garbage in, garbage out,” says Kenny, who worked at Microsoft before it was a public company. Kenny thinks big, beyond the confines of his company and his Canadian home.The subsea industry is about a generation behind robotics markets on the land and in the air for a fairly simple reason: working under the water in the ocean is an extremely difficult and
ConocoPhillips Deploys 'Low-code' Tech to Boost Bottom Line
, said.Low-code platforms are an accelerating trend as companies digitise globally, big tech is developing new systems and the impact of COVID-19 increases the focus on cost-cutting.Amazon launched a platform called Honeycode last week and Google bought AppSheet in January to replace an older system. Microsoft's Power App has existed for several years. Portugal's biggest technology start-up, OutSystems, is a major competitor."The concept matured in the last 7 to 10 years with an acceleration in the last couple. It addresses the developer shortage. It's faster and cheaper and you can
Stripe Puts $1 Mln Toward Carbon-removal Projects
, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund.“We have to help catalyze the research and development and the learning, so we really understand what are options are,” said Hamburg, a lead author at the IPCC, co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.Stripe is already having an impact. Microsoft was struck by Collison’s promise to spend more than necessary in hopes of spurring innovation. Microsoft later said it would invest $1 billion on carbon removal.“It’s terrific to see companies like Stripe making bold commitments about carbon removal,” said Microsoft spokeswoman
February 2024
