We talk about “drowning in data” and point to the emergence of “data lakes.” But the world of data and the world of water are already closer than we may think.
According to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon, rising sea levels will place significant portions of the internet’s critical infrastructure in heavily populated U.S. coastal areas at risk of inundation in the next 15 years.
“Most of the damage that’s going to be done in the next 100 years will be done sooner than later,” says the study’s senior author, Paul Barford, of UW–Madison.
According to the report, more than 4,000 miles of buried fiber optic conduit will be underwater by 2033, more than 1,100 traffic hubs will be surrounded by water, and data centers will be susceptible to inundation. New York, Miami and Seattle are the cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Mitigation measures such as strengthening sea walls may have some impact but are only delaying the inevitable, warns Barford. The buried fiber optic cables that act as the nerveways of the internet are water-resistant but not waterproof. “Keeping the sea at bay is hard. We can probably buy a little time, but in the long run it’s just not going to be effective.”
“The expectation was that we’d have 50 years to plan for it. We don’t have 50 years.” – Professor Paul Barford, UW-Madison
Professor Paul Barford describes his report’s findings as “a wake-up call.”
EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE
The study’s warnings come as technology players across the globe seek to address the prospect of rising sea levels on critical infrastructure. For many, the world’s internet and the planet’s water already go hand in hand.
Take Google’s announcement it is building its first private transatlantic subsea cable between the United States and the European mainland. Although the majority of transcontinental cables in global operation today are run by consortia, Google says it is eager to have private control over the Dunant cable—planned to go operational in late 2020. The landing point on the U.S. side is Virginia Beach, a city already concerned about the impact of rising sea levels on its core infrastructure.
Google’s international network of cables, as outlined in the graphic to the side, demonstrates just how intertwined its global infrastructure is with the world’s coastal areas, many of which are vulnerable to the challenges of rising sea levels.
UNDERWATER GREENTECH
Meanwhile, Microsoft has dove headfirst into the debate with the launch of phase 2 of Project Natick, its underwater data center.
Although new data centers appear all the time, the concept of submerging a data center in the murky waters off the shores of Scotland’s Orkney Islands remains novel. Microsoft insists that Project Natick, which started with a phase 1 deployment in 2016, represents the first time a data center has been submerged offshore.
Putting a data center under the sea may seems like a far out idea but it is “highly relevant to the future of Microsoft,” says Pete Lee, the company’s head of AI and research.
Analysts point to the challenge of overcooling faced by terrestrial data centers, compared with the natural cooling effects of maritime water. They also highlight the potential for the rapid deployment of data centers offshore.
“Project Natick is not only an exercise in greentech, but it is an exercise in whether we can get to a mass production concept,” Lee explains.
Microsoft describes Project Natick as a “true lights out data center.” Photo by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures.
According to Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of Microsoft UK, heading for the hills simply isn’t an option, given almost half of the world’s population lives near large bodies of water “Having data centers closer to billions of people using the internet will ensure faster and smoother web browsing, video streaming and gaming, while businesses can enjoy AI-driven technologies,” she says.
The Project Natick data center runs entirely off renewable energy, is as powerful as several thousand high-end consumer PCs, and has a planned length of operation without maintenance of up to five years.
JUMPING IN
The relationship between rising sea levels and the world’s critical internet infrastructure—from fiber optic cables and landing points through traffic exchanges and data centers— is complex and increasingly urgent. The warnings of the researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Oregon certainly serve as “a wake-up call” that doing nothing is not an option.
With such high concentrations of population close to the world’s coastlines, the tangled web of cabling and related infrastructure that powers the internet must find new ways of embracing an increasingly aquatic future. Efforts by companies like Microsoft to future proof critical infrastructure by going underwater may be one solution to the problem at hand.
As the saying goes: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
