CyberBunker is one of many cool data centres knocking around. You can’t break in, though
As the growth in data centres continues apace, we look at some of the more creative ways tech companies store their mounds and mounds of data.
Last month, Microsoft trialled its first underwater data centre. It had been planning it for years, and the move beneath the depths is reflective of a growing need to find better ways to store data.
Cloud storage is intangible in consumers’ eyes, but that mystical, vague concept evaporates once you see the behemoth centres popping up all over the world.
Often ugly, often gargantuan, and often major energy consumers, companies are now searching for ways to do things more efficiently. The net result is a growing suite of very clever, very attractive approaches.
Here are 7 of the more innovative centres:
Microsoft
We’ll start with Microsoft, which said its Leona Philpot data centre (a 38,000-pound container, 10ftx7ft) was a resounding success. “The shrimp exploring the seafloor made more noise than the data centre inside the container, which consumed computing power equivalent to 300 desktop PCs,” Microsoft said.
Citigroup
Citigroup’s Frankfurt data centre won a green award back in 2008 for its use of spacing and plants to drastically cut down on its CO2 emissions.
Bahnhof
Bahnhof has a selection of remarkable looking data centres, with this one in Pionen –located in a nuclear bunker from the Cold War – its best known location. The entrance is protected by a steel door 40cm thick.
Other nice Bahnhof facilities include Lajka (above) and Sparven (below)
Google has revealed more about its data centres than most major tech companies, with Street View tours of some of their facilities. Branding is important, even when its as simple as painting tubes. Council Bluffs, with added deer, below, and an overview of the Lenoir base beneath that.
CyberBunker
Now we’re into some seriously weird scenarios, with CyberBunker’s use of a pretty impenetrable NATO bunker in the Netherlands enjoying a colourful history. Because of its “many controversial customers”, CyberBunker has seen police forces attempt to break into the bunker to shut it down multiple times. However, but for a bit of damage to the doors, nobody has gotten through. The cold water circulation (below) is almost as old-school as those immensely thick doors (below again).
Green Mountain
Green Mountain’s data centre in Stavanger is built into a former NATO ammunition store. Here it is before they packed in the servers, with those colourful inclusions below, via Knut Bry
MareNostrum
Located in a former chapel, the MareNostrum supercomputer sits in a wonderful glass case in the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre.
