Company Offers Disaster-Proof Storage For Records

Makarand writes "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that a Utah company, Perpetual Storage, is offering disaster-proof commercial storage space deep inside a granite mountain for companies looking to store their most important records. The company claims that their vaults are protected and safe from "any force known to man", including a nuclear blast. The vaults have gained popularity recently after hospitals, government agencies and universities have started using them to keep their computer records safe."

Comments

I dunno....

[InnovativeCX]

I dunno about this place....many qualms. I don't know how could I possibly support an organization that refuses to hang the dead, mummified remains of my Summum spiritual companions (or brothers or whatever) on the walls of a data storage center.

In all seriousness, though they seem to have an open mind regarding material allowed to be stored, they substantially limit their potential market. For instance, "To eliminate fire risk, the company won't store paper or anything that might burn." I suppose this makes sense. But then they start turning down precious metals (and by that logic, stones such as diamonds and valuable jewelry), refusing to store cryogenically frozen human cells.

Additionally, I have to wonder about the security of the place. It only has about ten employees, which would put suspects on a short list, but at the same time gives the mountain comparatively little protection from outside attackers. Furthermore, the excavation was done only thirty or so years ago, so it hasn't yet stood the test of time. Not long ago, they completed some more major construction adding second and third floor mezanines...I have to wonder as to whether or not any of this has affected the structural integrity and to what extent. Of course, the southwest isn't exactly the most stable region either...earthquakes are many.

But let's put all of that aside for a moment. We have a company that has its eyes on the future!

We figure computers are not going to go away," Nowa said.

Merry Christmas,
Scott
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Re:I'm not buying it that it's earthquake-proof

[Anonymous Coward]

Granite does not imply volcanic activity.

A granite slab could have cooled and formed in the mantle and then have been pushed upwards by plate tectonics.

There's no requirement that it be formed in a volcano.

Mutant 59 will do ...

[foobsr]

... mostly company business records on computer tapes and microfilm.

See Pedler, K. & Davis, G.
The Viking Press, New York, 1972;
Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters

Or some nanobots wreaking havoc for the more hardware type of things.

CC.

Nuclear Winter?

[Lord Prox]

This place is using old missle silo's for data storage. I just think it was an interesting use. A swords to plowshares kinda thing.

Re:Would this block an EMP?

[another_henry]

Um, that's sort of true. You're confusing the gamma ray burst (prompt radiation) and EMP which are two different things. You're correct about not being able to totally gamma rays because of their incredibly low wavelength/high frequency. They can be shielded against with lots of matter in between, like lead or a whole lot of earth because the gamma rays ionize the shielding material and lose energy in doing so.

The EMP however is completely different, almost the opposite end of the scale. It isn't a wave as much as a pulse - a very sudden, high amplitude rising and falling edge producing effects more similar to an electromagnet than radio waves. When this pulse reaches wires etc inside electronic equipment it induces a high voltage, zapping it. Faraday cages can certainly protect against them, but there are problems because to have a running computer it usually needs connecting cables for power, data etc which must go through the cage. These can conduct the pulse in unless carefully opto-isolated.

Re:what if?

[spektr]

*cough* inexpensive mountains... You and your newfangled revisionist acronyms.

Who's a revisionist here? When I first read about RAIDs, everybody called the disks "independent" - because that's definitely what they are. And that didn't change for many years. Then some young whippersnappers with crappy IDE disks started referring to them as "inexpensive". I can hardly imagine why someone would call a RAID of U320 or FC disks "inexpensive"...