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Topic: Storage

Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

Summary: You can find datacenters in all corners of the globe, well beneath the Earth's surface, and even in churches, according to Silicon.com's Nick Heath.

Andy Smith

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Time to go deep underground for this next datacenter, into the caverns of a unused mine. The datacenter is situated 100 meters underground in a coal mine in the Chubu region of Honshu, Japan's main island.

When complete, the facility will total 30 shipping containers, each holding about 250 servers and with about 10,000 processor cores available, although that number could be expanded to 30,000.

Cooling is provided by groundwater and the 15C temperature underground dispenses with the need for air conditioning outside the containers.

The datacenter was set up in 2007 by a joint venture made up of Sun, now owned by Oracle, and 11 other companies.

The group estimates that it could save $9m a year on electricity costs by removing the need for water coolers.

The containers are strong enough to withstand earthquakes of 6.7 on the Richter scale. The picture above is not of the mine used for the Sun datacentre, but a coal mine tunnel in Pennsylvania.

Photo: zizzybaloobah

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Topics: Storage, Data Centers, Hardware

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  • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

    How do you figure out where west is in Antarctica?
    boomchuck1
    Reply 1 Vote

    • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

      @boomchuck1: ROTFLMAO ! I'd like to hear the answer to that myself!
      The Reverend
      Reply 1 Vote

    • West in Antartica

      @boomchuck1

      Easy question. It's counter-clockwise.
      bob.kerns2
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

        @bob.kerns2
        Go to the South Pole and look north along the GM. Everything to the left is West.

        yumsun
        yumsun@...
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

    Only "Easy" if you take a self-absorbed viewpoint; certainly less-than useful if you're arranging a meeting point or giving someone directions. At zero latitude, longitude is a consensual way to establish direction. Besides, boomchuck1 was being irreverent, creative & playful (which I greatly enjoyed) but, which is likely to go right over the heads of some high-functioning Asperger-types...
    deltadan
    Reply Vote

  • Cold is good

    Cold is good if you have a fridge in youyr PC tower freezing the CPU & GPU. On a room or building sized scale it is a nightmare as static electrical charges build up much more readily and to a greater level than in warmer, humid environments. MAke sure that earthing strap is well connected!
    DOSlover
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

    I have 2TB of storage on my Desktop, so you probably meant 2PB....
    legleye@...
    Reply Vote

  • McMurdo and south Pole?

    For some reason I get the impression the author is trying to say that McMurdo station is at the South Pole. McMurdo is on the coast of Antarctica, more than 600 miles from the south Pole (and in a position where East and West are clearly significant). Or to put it another way, McMurdo is about as close to the south Pole as northern Greenland is to the North Pole. Get your facts straight, ZD.
    gardoglee
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

    2Tb of storage - Wow !!!
    neilpost
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Strangest locations for datacenters (photos)

    2Tb would be impressive,,, if it was on floppies.
    What the ...!
    Reply Vote
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