My Column

Orkney dips toe in tech sector.

  • Date: Monday 11th June 2018
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Orkney made a real international splash last week when its picturesque shores became the location for the sinking of a cutting edge underwater data centre.

Tech giant Microsoft is trialling the project across the next five years in order to determine if immersion in the sea can boost the centre’s energy efficiency.

It’s great to see that Orkney’s reputation as a major hub for renewable energy research saw it chosen as the best site for this.

We Scots have always enjoyed a reputation for pioneering ideas, so the likes of Microsoft coming here makes a lot of sense. And let’s face it, we’re world beaters when it comes to cold water – anyone having a wee dip at the beach this summer will tell you that.

Microsoft essentially believes that the cost of cooling a data centre can be reduced by placing it underwater, while the common issue of corrosion can be alleviated by removing the oxygen and water vapour from the atmosphere in the capsule.

This pilot might be tiny in comparison to the data centres found in large cities across the world such as London and Madrid, but it could have a huge impact on the future of the industry.

If successful, it could pave the way for offshore date centres with Microsoft stating that it would take just 90 days to set up an underwater site compared to a few years to build one on land.

It could represent fantastic news as data centre operators face increasing pressure to deliver high-performance data facilities, while the demand for smart data centre solutions continues to build.

Ever-increasing data traffic is driving a huge upsurge in storage needs and it is thought that the UK data centre industry alone is currently worth around £73.3 billion.

In order to accommodate the vast amount of data generated every day, companies are operating an increasing number of centres around the world - and offshore ones will likely help to meet that growing necessity.

The expensive Scottish experiment has involved several partners with the cylinder built by French shipbuilding company, Naval, and then set in place with help from the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

There have been a few naysayers, nevertheless.

Some industry specialists are concerned that underwater data centres could actually have a negative environmental impact by raising the temperature of the sea. Sceptics also think that data centres should continue to be located in big cities where they are most needed.

My own concern? The computers apparently cannot be repaired if they break down underwater. What would happen if entire data centres went down in future? Could this have a detrimental impact on industry in the long run and require substantial figures to replace the cylinders?

Microsoft hopes that underwater data centres will have a lower failure rate than centres on land, but will this costly gamble pay off for the tech giant? The potential results are clearly worth the risk.

 

My entrepreneurial nature loves to see calculated risks being taken and I’d be delighted to see this pay off for Microsoft.

More importantly for Scotland and Orkney, what an amazing accolade it would be if we played a major role in the future of data storage.

 

SIDE

High streets across the UK have been having a hard time of it recently with big names closing stores across the country.

But it’s truly worrying to discover that Scotland may have been hit hardest with more store closures than any other region in the UK.

The Retail and Leisure Trends report by the Local Data Company looked at retailers and banks as well as restaurants, cafés and pubs, noting that 520 Scottish sites shut their doors last year compared with 498 in Greater London and 361 across Yorkshire and the Humber.

It’s thought that Scotland may well have suffered most because many bigger operators continue to vacate town and smaller city stores, which we have an abundance of, in order to concentrate on larger shop units.

The research largely points to administration having to be undertaken by some of the large retailers north of the border, not to mention a significant number of bank branch closures from The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Back in December, RBS announced that it was looking to close 52 bank branches in Scotland that serve rural communities, and a further 197 NatWest branches.

RBS then further reported last month that another 162 branches across the UK would be closed in a bid to cut costs as it believes that customers will continue to move online and away from face-to-face banking.

It’s important to note that, in amongst the doom and gloom, there were a few rays of light. Aberdeen was named one of the places where the growth of independent retailers was strongest, with 39 new outlets last year – the second largest rise in the UK.

However, with Scotland’s vacant unit rate lying at 11.2 per cent - the highest level since 2011 - who knows where our high streets will be in a year’s time?

We stand at a major crossroads and I’m sad to say that inevitably many companies won’t make it through this period of uncertainty.

 

LAUGH

It’s not often that whisky is called a fishy business, but if a new start-up is anything to go by, then that might be about to change.

I was interested to hear that Edinburgh-based MiAlgae uses by-products from the distilling process to grow Omega-3 rich algae that’s then used to feed farmed salmon.

Founder Douglas Martin said he wanted to "revolutionise" the animal and fish feed industries with the microalgae that comes from whisky.

He has received a £500,000 investment that will help the company expand its team and increase its production. It also plans to build a new plant for its technology at a whisky distilling site.

It all sounds like a fascinating prospect – and I wish Douglas the best of luck with his venture.

Any-fin is possible if you don’t trout yourself.

 

WEEP

Scottish social media network Kiltr has sadly shut down.

Set up to rival Facebook and LinkedIn with the help of Scottish government funding in 2014, Kiltr was a fantastic social networking platform offering Scots - at home and overseas - a platform on which to share content and build networks.

It was also a unique opportunity to tap purely into the Scottish market and develop relationships with organisations operating here.

 

However, with tough competition from Kiltr’s much bigger rivals, the company behind it has shifted to a different type of technology.

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