Clear the mountain and sink to the bottom of the sea? Why do Internet vendors' servers have to be handled like this?

The most important Internet companies in the world are their servers. Once the server fails, the consequences are unimaginable. In our knowledge, the servers of these companies must be placed in very important places. But in fact, the servers of many companies around the world may surprise netizens. For example, Microsoft's server is in the sea, Alibaba puts its own server at the bottom of Qiandao Lake, a famous scenic spot, and Apple's server is in Guizhou, China. Tencent and Huawei also put servers in the mountains of Guizhou.

In 20 14, Microsoft began to plan to put the server underwater. In the same year, it began to conduct experiments at sea. They put the servers of 300 computers in a sealed cabin weighing about 17 tons, all made of steel. Moreover, there are more than 100 sensors in the sealed cabin, and shore workers can sense the water pressure and temperature at any time through these sensors, which is convenient for finding and handling special situations in time. When everything is ready, the Microsoft team will put the capsule into the offshore area of California coast.

After the first experiment, in order to prove the feasibility of the submarine data center, Microsoft conducted the second submarine data experiment on 20 19. This experiment is larger, and more computer servers are loaded, with a total of 864 computer servers. Compared with the first steel sealed tank, the sealing equipment used in this experiment is more like a small submarine, with the length exceeding 10 meter. This experimental period lasted for five years.

Alibaba also put the server in the water. Ali hid his server in Qiandao Lake. Tourists who have traveled should all be introduced by tour guides. The server will emit a lot of hot air during its operation. At this time, heat dissipation must be done well, otherwise there may be a risk of burning out. In order to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions, Ali put the server at the bottom of the lake. The average temperature in Qiandao Lake area is about 18 degrees Celsius, and the lake water can save more than 80% of the cooling energy for the data center. This year can reduce carbon emissions by 654.38 million tons.

Huawei has a similar storage server initiative. Unlike Microsoft, which puts servers on the seabed, Huawei stores servers in caves. In 20 17, Huawei started to set up its own server center in Qixing Lake Data Center in Gui 'an New District, Guizhou Province. It is reported that the first phase of the data center has 400,000 square meters and can store about 600,000 servers. Huawei has put 170 servers here. Such a large-scale project almost hollowed out a mountain and may continue to expand in the future.

Why do these Internet companies put such important servers in these seemingly "unreliable" places? Special servers are also afraid of water. Isn't Microsoft afraid of server flooding? In fact, the reason is very simple. Servers are afraid of water and heat, and the temperature of ordinary computer rooms will be unbearable, not to mention the data centers of these Internet companies. Therefore, heat dissipation has always been a headache for these technology companies, especially in summer. For such a huge server, organizing cold cooling is also a big expense.

According to relevant data, a large Internet company, such as Huawei and Microsoft, consumes more than 20% of the total power consumption every day, of which more than 40% is used for cooling consumption. The global Internet is the company's data center, and the annual power consumption for cooling servers is 2% of the global annual power consumption. This data is already very large, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of some countries. Therefore, how to save energy and reduce emissions for cooling servers is what many Internet companies are actively seeking, and "water cooling" used by Microsoft is a good solution.

Microsoft said that after the underwater data center was put into the seabed 105, they found that the temperature of the sealed cabin would dissipate with the flow of seawater, and the effect was not bad at present, but the seawater near the sealed cabin would rise slightly, about one thousandth of the normal seawater temperature. However, this method may be difficult to use on a large scale. After all, there are hundreds of computers in Microsoft's data center, so it may be inconvenient to maintain them at the bottom of the sea.

For example, Huawei chose to store the server in a cave, which is more convenient to maintain. The only problem is that digging a tunnel in the early stage requires a certain investment. Moreover, the temperature in Guizhou is influenced by the mountains, and it stays at more than 20 degrees all the year round. In summer, the temperature in the mountains is very low, so the temperature in the caves will be even lower. In addition, electricity consumption in Guizhou is very cheap, only about 0.35 yuan at a time, and hydropower generation in Guizhou is very mature, which can reduce the pollution of thermal power generation.

Not only Huawei, but also Apple and Tencent have their own data centers in this area, and even the National Big Data Center is here. More than half of the world's national management data are stored here, and Guizhou is also the largest data center in the world. In addition, Amazon, 360 and other companies. The purpose of storing their data center in Ningxia is simple, that is, using the local natural climate to cool down the servers.