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Databases In Caves? A Unique Google Fiber Bid

Posted by Soulskill on from the sysadmins-plus-bats-equals-fun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Plenty of cities have submitted bids for the Google Fiber project, with most of their bids being centered around the attributes that could describe many communities. Yet one small midwestern town, with much less fanfare than the metropolitan bids, provided an unusual proposition for Google in their likely quixotic nomination. Quincy, IL, has an extensive series of underground caverns that could provide year-round temperature control, dedicated hydroelectric power, and security in the case of a terrorist attack."

15 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sys admins pretty much live in caves already, right?

    1. Re:Makes sense by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hey!

      It's called a LAIR.

    2. Re:Makes sense by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      No. Dragons live in lairs. And they guard treasures.

      Batman lives in a cave.

      If you're a system administrator in Quincy, Illinois and you have a black car, you're already on the path of becoming a super-hero!

  2. Carthage, MO has that as well by Nimey · · Score: 3, Informative

    Big former limestone quarry with a bunch of underground storage. Town has its own electric utility too.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
    1. Re:Carthage, MO has that as well by sconeu · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, but it's not worth it, because everyone knows it'll all be plowed under and salted when the Romans invade.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  3. My Town Put A Bid In.... by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

    We may not have extensive, cool underground caves, but we do have a nearly unlimited resource of young college-aged girls in warm sunny California weather right on the beach with an advanced technical university that can turn out underpaid interns by the droves. So suck it Quincy. =P

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    Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    1. Re:My Town Put A Bid In.... by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Your newsletter, I WANTS!

  4. Fantasic Idea! by Kagato · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't know if they will be google fiber finalist, but they make a very compelling argument for being a data center. Kudos for using the competition as a backdoor into media spotlight.

  5. no, caves suck by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. they are hard to get to

    2. they are hard to get supplies to and build in

    3. they flood

    4. they have air quality issues

    5. and they ARE cool... until you put a bunch of servers in them, and then they heat up, and STAY hot, and are harder to cool than on the surface

    the idea of servers in caves sucks

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:no, caves suck by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was reading somewhere about the London Underground - how, when it opened, it was really nice and cool in the tunnels and everyone enjoyed a break from the summer heat... but a century of operations has heated the very bedrock, and now it's sweltering down there, and they're trying to figure out ways to effectively do air-conditioning in stations and on trains ... which can be tricky, since some of the tubes are so tight that there's not really anywhere for the waste heat to go. (They were talking about having the trains make blocks of ice while in other segments, and letting those melt while they're in the narrow under-the-river tubes).

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    2. Re:no, caves suck by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hmm... Then why are companies like Iron Mountain building out LARGE datacenters in caves?

      (In most cases, former mines/quarries.)

      1) Not caves large enough to drive vehicles in - many mines meet this criteria
      2) Same answer as 1 for supplies, for 2 - in many cases they were already "built" for previous purposes (usually, getting valuable materials out of the ground)
      3) Not if they're above the water table - many are. Iron Mountain's is, and apparently they're planning on using a nearby underground lake for cooling soon.
      4) Not if built/designed correctly.
      5) Iron Mountain and the like would prefer to disagree with you on that.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    3. Re:no, caves suck by T+Murphy · · Score: 3, Funny

      You must be missing something. The bad guys in spy movies often put their secret bases in caves, complete with big computers with lots of unnecessary buttons and screens. Super villains know what they are doing, so I'm sure caves are an excellent choice.

      --
      My webcomic
    4. Re:no, caves suck by Swervin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      3. they flood

      Depends on the cave. Of course, if you're going to build a dam a scant three miles away and vastly raise the water table, well, it's probably going to be a concern with this cave.

      Dam is already there, they're just adding a hydro electric plant to it. Lock and Dam 21

    5. Re:no, caves suck by ErikLalande · · Score: 3, Interesting

      These caves don't flood. Monster food companies use them to store food in, and they are a mile from the river.

  6. Re:Be safe! by ErikLalande · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thats not the point. The point is that Quincy's underground data center would be a backup for Chicago, KC, or St Louis's if they ever got hit with a dirty bomb. The fact that its a cave just means that Google wouldn't have to invest millions of dollars to create a hardened data center, because it does that naturally.