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.