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Iceland's Data Center Push Finally Gets Traction
miller60 writes "Iceland is poised for the completion of its first major international data center project, after years of marketing itself as a potential data center mecca. Iceland offers an ample supply of geothermal energy and an ideal environment for fresh air cooling, but its ambitions were slowed by the global financial collapse. But now the huge UK charity Wellcome Trust has provided funding to complete a new data center in a former NATO facility in Keflavik."
What is the bandwith to iceland anyways?
Wikileaks has a proposal to get a bunch of different free-speech, safe-harbor, journalist-protection style legislation through Iceland so as to both spur this kind of development, as well as provide a political safe-haven for data. Apparently it has caught on pretty well locally, and with a small population it's not particularly difficult to get such legislation passed on short notice.
http://www.wikileaks.org/
It wasn't that long ago that Iceland's only internet access line went via a Scottish high-street that was getting dug up repeatedly, with the inevitable consequences:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/28/iceland_without_broadband/
Do you have a need for datacenters? We do and I frankly could care less if our datacenters are located in the US and Iceland is an attractive location for the reason mentioned in the article. Geothermal power is plentiful and the climate keeps the cooling costs down, but there are some other factors to consider. Bandwidth is one, another is how much extra does it cost to design a facility to be more resistant to earthquakes as the vulcanization that offers those benefits of abundant geothermal power also means there is seismic instability.
There are other factors as well. Iceland has a small population. Do they have the local expertise? If not, how hard is it to get residency permits for foreign workers. What are the other associated tax laws and other legal differences in the area. Do they have different data laws than here in the US? Do these costs off set the energy cost savings?
I've been to Iceland a couple times to visit friends and like it there. They are used to constructing buildings to withstand earthquakes and they have an educated work force and middle of the rung when it comes to tax and other expenses. Our only huge concern I know was looking at the size of the population and wondering how many people in the entire country are familiar with Teradata. If not, we'd need to relocate a couple people at least for 3 - 5 years.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
This has been on the cards for about two years now. Construction at the site stopped last month because politicians wouldn't dare go on with the project because of public opposition. One of the top stakeholders in Verne Global is one Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, former owner of failed bank Landsbanki, whose high-interest Icesave savings accounts failed spectacularly and have kicked off the biggest firestorm in the republics' short history. Also, the bandwidth is not a problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_Connect (goes to US/CANADA) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DANICE (goes to EU) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FARICE-1 (goes to EU) These are the fiber cables we have. As you can read, we have lots of unlit fiber there.
I prefer my data-center to be further away from active volcanoes.
"Bandwidth is one, another is how much extra does it cost to design a facility to be more resistant to earthquakes as the vulcanization that offers those benefits of abundant geothermal power also means there is seismic instability." While a perfectly legitimate concern, bandwidth is not a problem. Neither is the seismic activity. Any serious seismic activity is well mapped out and building for it hasn't been a problem since we crawled out of the caves (which admittedly was only around 1900). In my opinion, the earthquakes are outright fun, and we know well where the earthquake danger zones are. Start worrying if you hear that they want to build it around Selfoss. ;)
I'm born raised in Iceland but currently live in Canada and I've spent a year in Finland, and I can absolutely, positively guarantee you that the tech guru population per capita in Iceland is drastically higher than in either one of those. Even though the Finns are generally geeks... and I mean that in a good way obviously. Frankly, I think lack of geek skills in Iceland are not a problem for this particular project, and besides, the worst case scenario is that it won't be as monstrously huge as otherwise.
Of course I'm biased, I can only promise you that I'd tell you if I thought it were a problem.
I suppose the biggest problem would be the controversy over the energy it would require. Even though we are extremely lucky for how cheap electricity is in Iceland, there is also the counter-view that nature is to be preserved and therefore not exploited... even though it's the most nature-friendly way of producing electricity imaginable... okay, let's not get into politics. ;)
Honestly, I think that would be the biggest problem. Dealing with the politics.
...of a floating ice floe. The latency might be large, but it will definitely outperform a Volkswagen.
According to the Wikileaks 1.0 presentation Iceland could pass a bill which will provide a last resort for information which is suppressed in other European countries (currently on the Wikileaks website with a call for donations).
It seems like the regions of the world where electricity-hungry aluminum production has centered would do well with data centers. Quebec is also endowed with plentiful hydroelectric electricity, ample cooling capacity, local expertise, and most importantly, proximity to large markets. I almost wonder why i don't hear more about data center hosting in Quebec, given the natural advantages
A friend of mine worked on an earlier attempt to locate a data center in Iceland. They mapped out a place somewhere on the west side that they believed to be seismically stable.
Volcanoes are scary though. You can build miles away from them and still get your HVAC clogged if the wind blows ash your way.
"Yeah, I think it's frozen"
It keeps the hot side hot and the cold side cold.
sigh... I'm old.
Now I am wondering if CCP is getting their servers back to Iceland instead of the UK