The original purpose of these bunkers was the safety of people from any conflict on land. If you’ve seen the 1999 romcom Blast from the Past (Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone), you have a good idea of their intended purpose. However, in the 21st century, such major military conflicts are not likely to occur. The bunkers got abandoned for a while. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bvf00GEiZFYWhy shouldn’t we put these bunkers to good use, now? That’s what smart people from the IT industry have started doing. Yes, now these shelters are increasingly used to store the machines that keep our digital information. Besides this, there are abandoned limestone mines, peppered around globally which are also candidates for use as modern data centers.

The original designs had to be altered to ensure that the machines don’t heat up and comply with the safety and security standards. Why go through the trouble of constructing a subterranean data center when we can use ordinary buildings? Let’s consider the practical benefits of the underground placement.

How Subterranean Data Centers Save Construction Costs

Instead of constructing a building from scratch or occupying space in an existing building on a lease, it is far cheaper to use an abandoned bunker or mine to operate a data center.

Data centers range in floor space requirements. For some, a few tens of thousands of square feet may be enough. Nevertheless, for more significant operations, even a million square ft. may be necessary. Underground data centers can provide leasable floor space within this range.

A regular building may charge $55-$65 per square foot as rent.

A mine or bunker, on the other hand, is an existing space that is built of sturdy materials with tried and tested designs. Some modifications may be required to alter the area for operational specifications. This work can go on for years regardless of the weather on the surface.

Once the initial architectural adjustments are made, you can start the wiring and placement of the machines. The whole process is much quicker. In addition to this, the maintenance costs are less, which leads to lower per square foot rental costs for the customers. With regards to construction permits, local authorities are less bureaucratic when it comes to subterranean structures.

Privacy and Security

Underground data centers can provide a useful perk that traditional data centers lack. Any company wishing to keep the location of its data center a secret would do well to deploy a secret location.

Buildings are usually located in public areas where information can be obtained about what is found inside any particular structure. On the other hand, there won’t be any foot or vehicle traffic next to an underground data center. Deliberate sabotage becomes much more difficult when the data is not in a traditional building.

Even if secrecy isn’t a goal, every data center needs to meet stringent security standards. This is easier to implement in underground locations. Usually, you won’t find signs elaborating on what is located inside a subterranean location. Multiple layers of physical security such as guards, ID checks, document/authorization checks, and inventory checks are performed regularly. Technology is also employed to grant access using only biometrics.

While in a traditional data center, someone may gain unauthorized access through points of entry that are only open to maintenance/custodial staff, in an underground data center the original layout prevents forced entry or CCTV blind spots.

It is worth mentioning the fact that subterranean data centers have 24-hour security teams, trained guard dogs, infrared cameras, and military electromagnetic pulse protection.

Power Supply Reliability

If you know anything about data center services, you understand how critical uptime is. Most data hosting providers promise 99.99% uptime. To deliver this guaranteed service, level data centers need to be as sure of the power supply as the sun rising from the east.

Subterranean data centers deploy generators, uninterrupted power supplies, power distribution units, remote power panels, and programmable logic controllers. As these units are located underground, they are not exposed to the elements and remain calm during summer and protected from rain and snow as well.

Technicians and engineers find it easier to maintain equipment underground and respond quicker in case of a fault or breakdown. The systems have full redundancy. So, in case a unit shuts down, other equipment can pick up the load. It’s not unusual for underground data centers to generate power in the megawatts.

Connectivity

Major internet service providers partner with underground data centers to lay down the fiber lines for connection to the World Wide Web. For a while now the broadband connections have been based on underground optic fiber cables.

Well, underground data centers are more efficiently served because they’re at the same height as the data transmission lines! There is no need for miles of extra wiring that is necessary for data centers in traditional buildings. That saves cost in terms of cabling and fixtures, which simplifies troubleshooting and repairs.

The cabling process will also be completed much faster than for a traditional data center, thus saving labor costs, and enabling quicker operationalization.

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

Academic studies show that 50% of a data center’s energy consumption is for cooling.

Subterranean data centers have geographical and geological advantages, such as zero solar heat gain, low ambient temperature, natural geothermal cooling, and solid rock surrounded structures.

The energy consumption reduction in air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) system of underground data centers is a significant incentive for companies to use underground colocation facilities.  The hotter and humid a place is, the higher the advantage of the subterranean placement of data centers.

Putting whizzing and whirring machines in a confined underground space will raise the temperature so to prepare any such facility for data center operations, ventilation pipes have to be drilled vertically or horizontally.

Overall, you save on energy costs in underground data centers.

The Future Is Underground

The subterranean data centers aren’t just a fad. This trend is here to stay. It’s more likely that as land costs rise and leasing becomes more expensive, top executives will go for underground data centers.

Fortune 500 companies and governments are already utilizing underground data centers. Currently, most such colocation facilities are in the United States and Europe. However, subterranean data centers are expected to launch all over, especially in hot climates.

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From writing codes with the help of the Github, a typical code warehouse, to sharing documents with clients or colleagues using the Box; entering a consumer’s details in your Salesforce data board. The photos we get back to on our Dropbox accounts, for the sake of nostalgia and bittersweet smiles, we are using cloud services. Dropbox is one of the cloud services that was built on another cloud service, i.e. Amazon AWS, in fact, cool right?

The cloud services are aiding in cost-cutting, in today’s capitalist world, by improvisation and customized approaches for every IT service that exists and it doesn’t even ask you to go through expensive installations. Therefore, without a doubt, cloud services can help you with your on-site data centers and their extension. To help you understand the importance and ensure that you have the clarity of mind when it comes to the cloud and your relationship; here are a few tips for you. One thing to keep in mind throughout the article is that you should choose the service that resonated with your own needs and from there onwards, you can strategize to get an overall upward movement in your success charts.

Why Should You Use the Cloud to Extend Your Data?

• Cost Effectiveness
• Full of flavor (Iaas, Paas & Saas)
• Scalability services
• Time and Energy Efficient
• Market Navigation

Now let’s discuss the points in a bit detail to make it easier for you to comprehend, shall we? The best thing about Cloud alongside many others is that it is cost effective; once you add a cloud extension to your business, you would not be uncertain of where the money went or if the extension was beneficial for you at all. Moreover, if you wish to go on a budget or cost-cutting spree and limit your resources to a handful – cloud might help you replace the ones you let go. It doesn’t just help you cut down on the cost of the hardware, but instead, it also helps you manage and earmark the space which is quite challenging sometimes.

It comes in different flavors, not just vanilla – for you to choose which one you want. IaaS, or infrastructure as a service, is all about maintaining the frame – if your groundwork is weak, nothing can help you establish. PaaS, or platform as a service, provides a place for the developers to build and develop cloud applications; if you choose PaaS, you will get a database, an operating system alongside programming language execution proficiencies with the webservers. SaaS, or software as a service, is built on PaaS. The SaaS providers would deliver software and applications you desire using the cloud. The usage of the cloud for this is essential because it is far more accessible. This is mainly because it is easier for a software upstart to unveil a new application using the cloud. Thus, the cloud can also help when it comes down to services relative to scalability.

It is quicker and cost-effective for all sorts of businesses mostly because it helps a company get more accepting towards the developing needs of their audience. What’s great is that you can scale most of the time without interfering with your team directly – this saves both time and energy giving you more chances to generate profits. Everyone works in harmony without any interruptions just as the cloud does for you.

Lastly, on my list, using the cloud helps you navigate through the market as well as the market itself easily. It lets you find the provider that best suits you without having you to think for months. Now that this confusion is out of question let’s move onto tips for using these very services for the extension of your data center.

3 Tips for Using Cloud Services to Extend Your Data Center

To design a cloud strategy; the first thing you ought to do is think about your own needs as suggested before. Once that is done; then begins the actual planning and scheming as to how the cloud platforms, items or purveyors may be of help to you. Keep in mind the essentials:

• the whys
• the whats &
• the hows

In and for your work conditions with the help of a 3 step course discussed below:

Assess Your Needs & Goals

You need to realize what would help you boost your game-plan. You are, by now, aware of all the advantages and benefits you could get by using cloud services so it should be easy to decide which one would be in your best interest. Start making your plan around that and then see where your mind goes next.

You should make a list of things you want to see inculcated in your business; the value and purpose – work on them. Create goals for a day-to-day basis rather than a monthly or even weekly basis to see how far you are from yesterday and how close you are to the tomorrow of your company. Be more responsive to your business demands and that too punctually. Due to the cloud’s scalability, you can open doors to many possibilities of transformation for your company’s applications with style and precision.

If you a fall under the SME category, you could also use the risk mitigation, availability, and reliability services in the cloud that might be unaffordable for you otherwise. Sounds quite promising, no?

Set Your Application Strategy

Put a pin on the type of application(s) you want to use once you have the cloud. Don’t think that you can decide to use whichever you want to use whenever the time comes because then you might not even know the number of applications that might be available to you. You would NOT even know their functions let alone names until you needed one for some dire situation and you didn’t have any – later on you searched it and viola you just found an application that might have been helpful for you! You could also opt for a private model, but that might cost a bit more than the one available to the public. However, they are superior when it comes to development and other relating applications.

Identify Challenges

Your challenge isn’t just to select the technology that might be best for your job or company instead the biggest challenge for you might be the clouds themselves along with the integration of;

• Data
• Workflows
• Business processes

The level of difficulty depends on the type of application you’re aiming for, so that right there requires some hard work from your side and the team. Another widely known yet least bothered challenge for you might be educating and prepping the whole group or a particular person who would be selected to use these new applications. Pay heed to those and have them learn it too.

Conclusion:

With time, the cloud has become more affordable and efficient. Many people are shifting to it for a better future of their company – they made a safe choice and might make it so why can’t you?

Again, remember; don’t dive into the ocean without judging its depth. Think of which service you need and opt for that – no need to go about getting every single application. The best part of the cloud is the presence of different levels of Cloud services.

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