New Datacenter In Underground Lair 109
lobo235 writes to tell us that a new underground data center designed by Sweden's largest ISP is fit for a classic supervillain, complete with greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. "'Rather than just concentrating on technical hardware we decided to put humans in focus,' he said. 'Of course, the security, power, cooling, network, etc, are all top notch, but the people designing data centers often (always!) forget about the humans that are supposed to work with the stuff.'"
Lunar colonies (Score:4, Interesting)
--
Search Multiple Craigslist communities from one Place: http://www.bigattichouse.com/oneeyeopen.html [bigattichouse.com]
The Art Deco version, from the 1940s. (Score:5, Interesting)
Take a look at these pictures of the Aspidistra transmitter [seftondelmer.co.uk] in Britain. Art deco design, curved chrome, indirect lighting, and parquet floors, all in an underground bunker. This was the 500KW transmitter used to break in on German radio stations and create the illusion of a local station within Germany.
The transmitter was purchased from RCA, and the Radio City design made it all the way to Sussex.
Rendered Photo's (Score:2, Interesting)
Its too bad they didn't use actual pictures. It looks completely rendered.
Especially the last one of the power switches
Cool concept though if it is indeed real.
Re:Hm.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Hmm, lasers for the datacenter, i think these will do fine.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/14/northrop-grummans-weaponized-laser-on-sale-now-definitely-won/ [engadget.com]
Just remember.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Stay out of Power Dome A [penny-arcade.com] unless you've learned Old Magic [penny-arcade.com] from your local exterminator [penny-arcade.com].
Re:A lot of power? Not hardly :) (Score:2, Interesting)
Hey, it's Sweden's largest ISP. The entire population of Sweden is under 10 million. How big a data center do they need?
Some background info (Score:3, Interesting)
The datacenter is built in what was called Pionen; one of several now defunct wartime civil defense headquarters located underground in the Stockholm area. It was built in 1943, and modernized in the mid-1970s. It was meant to be a forward command post, built large enough to contain several rescue vehicles (fire trucks) in addition to the command and control functions, and despite the rumors, it's not capable of withstanding a direct hit from a non-tactical nuclear weapon.
What would be really interesting is if someone bought the Muskö underground naval base and converted it into a datacenter, since that's a SIGNIFICANTLY larger underground structure (its underground area is approximately the same size as the whole of Gamla Stan in Stockholm).
Re:Some background info (Score:2, Interesting)
These things did, and still do, make a difference from a military point of view, and military purposes was why the original structure was built in the first place.
If I'm not mistaken, there are several underground military structures in Sweden broadly on the Stockholm - Oslo axis that should be highly suitable for datacenter use, but I'm not sure if they have all been decommissioned yet. This includes what is believed to be the main national military/civil wartime command center ("Riksbunkern"). Swedish speaking people who are interested in these thing should try to search on "Redovisningsavdelning Bergslagen", which was, and still is as far as I know, the rather non-descript designation used by the unit/organization responsible for the highest level of military C3 in Sweden.