[Beowulf] More about those underwater data centers

[Lux, Jim (337K)]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/11/satya-nadella-the-cloud-is-going-to-move-underwater/

I was amused by this: 
He cites proximity to humans as a particular advantage: about 50 percent of the world's population lives within 120 miles of a coast. Putting servers in the ocean means that they can be near population centers, which in turn ensures lower latencies. Low latencies are particularly important for real-time services, including Microsoft's forthcoming https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsoft-announces-project-xcloud-xbox-game-streaming-for-myriad-devices/.
He cites proximity to humans as a particular advantage: about 50 percent of the world's population lives within 120 miles of a coast. Putting servers in the ocean means that they can be near population centers, which in turn ensures lower latencies. Low latencies are particularly important for real-time services, including Microsoft's forthcoming https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsoft-announces-project-xcloud-xbox-game-streaming-for-myriad-devices/.

 I’m not sure there’s a huge population of Xcloud-Xbox gamers in Orkney.  There's not much daylight this time of year, of course, so maybe that's what those Orcadians are up to.

And I believe that 100% of the UK's population lives within 120 miles of a coast. ("coast" gets around the often contentious discussion of where the "sea" starts in the face of tidal estuaries and tidal flats - I was struck by the sheer volume of discussion related to "what point in the UK is farthest from the sea")

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