After the previous post about
Bastionhost's plan for a bunker in Nova Scotia I did a search for the phrase "underground data centers" and came up with some really good hits. I have listed a few of the choice hits below:
The slickest looking site that I came across was "
StrataSpace – An Underground Data Center Facility" From what I gather this facility is just getting started, but it looks pretty damn slick.
Data Center Knowledge has several good articles including "
Iron Mountain’s Natural Cooling Advantage" about Iron Mountain now leasing data center space in it's facility outside Pittsburgh. The other article "
Huge Data Bunker Planned in Louisville" is primarily about the StataSpace data center, but it also lists
The Bunker, the Iron Mountain facility (with a link to a
Computerworld article),
The Westlin Corporation, and lastly
Titan One which is my home state of Washington. Hmmm, maybe I should send my resume to
Titan One.
Computerworld had another article about Sun's plans to set up an underground data center: "
Sun to set up underground data center to save on power" I wonder how many Hollow Earthers have stumbled upon this article after catching only part of the headline, and then had their beliefs dashed to bits once they realized what the article was about.
Of course I got a few hits on Pionen's new data center under Stockholm (
here,
here, and
here).
There's also a underground data center at the Frankfurt airport: "
German Airport Digs Deep With Underground Data Center"
Then there is the
PHNS facility, along this
article from Systems Management News which discusses several of the projects or facilities already listed.
Of all the sites I came across during my search the one that really turned my crank, and the underground data center that I would really like to work in, is the one that
CoreNode and Mana Ikaika have plans for on the Windward side of Oahu. Let's face it, what computer geek with an interest urban spelunking wouldn't enjoy working in an old Cold War era bunker on the island of Oahu? I'm now wondering if I should I send my resume to Titan One in Mose Lake Washington, or to CoreNode/Mana Ikaika in Hawaii? Maybe I should play it safe and send my resume to both.
Like me you may have wondered why all the interest is in moving data centers underground? Well apparently climate control and security are the two main reasons. Also there really isn't much need for Cold War era bunkers these days, at least for the governments that built them, so in those cases where bunkers are being purchased to be turned into data centers they can be had for a relatively cheap price.
Now what about above ground facilities? I am quite certain there are lots of places out there that are above ground that would make good data centers as well as be of interest to urbanex'ers. What about abandoned malls? If you cruise on over to
deadmalls DOT com, and take a look at all the abandoned malls out there, you might think just as I do that some enterprising individual with access to cash could turn some of those abandoned malls into pretty decent data centers.
Granted climate control will be more of an issue than in a underground facility, but if the price is right then why not? Most of the infrastructure needed would already be in place, and any extra space could be used for offices, or even restaurants and stores to help keep employees on site. Of course that idea about restaurants and stores assumes that there will be a large workforce present, but if that's the case then employee parking shouldn't be a problem, right?
I do wonder if some of the people who have built or are building data centers haven't considered economically depressed areas as possibly good sites due to low realestate prices, and cost of living. Also for people like myself who are considering a change of scene, moving to a place where the pace is a little slower might be an incentive to work at a facility located elsewhere. Anyways would it be cool to work at a place that used to be a mall and has an escalator?
Underground or on the surface, there are lots of interesting places out there that would make great data centers, as well as be of interest to urban explorers, or at least geeks like me who are armchair urban explorers.
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