ISP | Onelargeprawn

Bahnhof: This IS The Data Centre You’re Looking For

I’ve always imagined data centres to housed be in drab corridor-lined buildings but it seems that some of them are far from it. Google’s new data centre is being built in an old paper mill in Finland and will be cooled entirely by water from the Baltic Sea. Huge pipes will reportedly pull water from the ocean floor and the paper mill’s pumps will circulate the water to the necessary areas. It is due to cost €200-million and should be ready sometime in 2011.

Another equally grand data center is already in existence, and looks like it could be an evil doer’s lair from a spy film. Bahnhof is a Swedish ISP that has its home in a rather interesting location – in a nuclear-safe, uber-secure bunker that is below the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm.

Here are some factoids about the re-purposed fallout shelter:

It is buried beneath 30 metres of bedrock and protected by half-metre thick doors.
It is said to be able to withstand the impact from a hydrogen bomb.
The two German Maybach diesel submarine engines now function as emergency back-up generators.
There is a artificial waterfall, wall plants, and a 2600-litre saltwater fish tank.
The round see-through meeting space suspended above the main area has a moon-map fur rug.
The data centre hosts a portion of Wikileaks’ servers.

See the splendour of Bahnhof’s Pionen Data Center in images and a video tour after the jump.

Pigeon Race 2009: Will A Homing Pigeon Beat The Telco Giant?

In a satirical attempt to highlight slow and often inconsistent transfer speeds in South Africa, a financial services company has decided to host Pigeon Race 2009. The company postulates that in a data race, a pigeon could haul a 4GB file to a location faster than it can be transferred through a normal land line. The affable 11-month old homing pigeon, named Winston, will have a 4 GB flash stick SD card strapped to its leg and will fly from the company’s call centre in Howick to its head office in Hillcrest, Durban, a distance of 80 km.

Risking bad weather and death by predatory hawks, the pigeon is expected to arrive in 45 minutes whilst the landline transfer is expected to take two days. The race is expected to start tomorrow. Keep updated with the story on Pigeon Race 2009.

Already people have placed more favour with the pigeon over the telco giant – a commenter on The Times article feels that the pigeon will be faster even if it walks. And some MyBroadband forum members think someone will shoot the bird so they can braai it. Others think Telkom might be hard at working trying to secure an unimpeded connection to secure the win.

What are your thoughts?

[via MyBroadband]

Update (09/09/09): Winston did not disappoint his 1000+ Facebook fans, landing safely in 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds. At that point the ADSL transfer still around four percent complete. A round of applause for Winston and birdband :yes:

News travels fast – Winston makes it onto the Daily Mail and gets Slashdotted.