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During the previous .com craze (2000-ish), I was at a Mercedes data center around Munich that was build in a former WWII bunker. The allies, when they captured
by roel_v 13y ago
During the previous .com craze (2000-ish), I was at a Mercedes data center around Munich that was build in a former WWII bunker. The allies, when they captured it, decided against blowing it up because (according to our guide at the time), blowing it up would take so much explosives that it would leave a several-kilometer large crater and destroy all glass windows for 10's of kilometers around. They had some pictures of how (during the conversion to data center) they used wire saws ten of meters long to saw through the 5 meters of concrete thick walls. Pretty impressive.
That said, it seemed like the thick walls were more of a sales gimmick than actually being useful. Whether a wall is 10 or 5000 cm of concrete, no burglar will get through; and when there really is a nuclear war going on, the safety of the servers of the majority of companies in there wouldn't matter a bit.
- tombrossman 13y agoWe've got loads of German bunkers here in Jersey and I often think of what else they could be used for. Our neighbour has converted one to a totally soundproof media room, for example. The larger ones are of historic value and are being restored, but there are some good reasons to use the medium-sized ones for server rooms. The temperature is naturally very cool inside, and they all have superb ventilation due to the air filters installed in case of chemical attack (Hitler was gassed in WW1 and so obsessed with gas locks & ventilation). Physical security, that's obvious. Even those that were partially destroyed after the war were made safe by pouring more concrete to re-seal them. A highly-interconnected island with Gigabit broadband and multiple links to the UK & France. Hey, if anyone is interested in building 'Data Bunkers' this is a damn good place to start. The local government is pretty business friendly, too.
- raverbashing 13y agoJersey => Channel Island, correct?
- tombrossman 13y agoYes, we are right off the French coast. Here's some background on the WW2 history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Channel_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Channel_Isla...