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Former NATO Nuclear Bunker Now an 'Airless' Unmanned Data Center

Posted by timothy on from the no-humans-involved dept.

An anonymous reader writes A German company has converted a 1960s nuclear bunker 100 miles from network hub Frankfurt into a state-of-the-art underground data center with very few operators and very little oxygen. IT Vision Technology (ITVT) CEO Jochen Klipfel says: 'We developed a solution that reduces the oxygen content in the air, so that even matches go outIt took us two years'. ITVT have the European Air Force among its customers, so security is an even higher priority than in the average DC build; the refurbished bunker has walls 11 feet thick and the central complex is buried twenty feet under the earth.

4 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. How is maintenance performed? by Isarian · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do staff go down with O2 tanks for maintenance, cleaning, server work, etc?

    1. Re:How is maintenance performed? by kogut · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hopefully the "low staff" was intentional, and not a side effect.

    2. Re:How is maintenance performed? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Do staff go down with O2 tanks for maintenance, cleaning, server work, etc?

      Easy problem. They just hired some Perl divers to do admin. Those guys can hold their breath for an impressive amount of time and are comfortable with CLI use, natural fit.

    3. Re:How is maintenance performed? by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This may or may not be a serious problem, depending on how they designed the data center.

      Because it is heavier than air (REALLY heavier than air-- you can float a tinfoil boat on it!), all you need to do to evacuate it is add pressurized normal air above it, and have an openable floor drain reservoir to allow the displaced sulfur hexafluoride to exit through. The normal air will displace the gas.

      Additionally, the heaviness of the gas will cause it to stay pooled in the datacenter, meaning you wont have to keep adding gas to the datacenter as often to maintain the low O2 environment.

      Additionally, it is "safe" to breathe sulfur hexafluoride. (About as safe as huffing helium)-- it just displaces the oxygen. it does not itself cause any choking or inhalation hazard other than asphyxiation from low O2. It makes your voice very deep sounding.

      If done right, "draining" the gas could be an extremely cost effective solution. (When done, open the vents at the top of the datacenter, then just pump the gas back into the room from the reservoir under the floor.)

      So, it being heavier than air may or may not be a problem, depending on how they designed the system.