Data centers have never been exciting places. That is, until now. Its official, the coolest data center in the world is the Pionen, located in 100 feet below the bedrock in Stockholm, Sweden. Originally built as a nuclear bunker used during wartimes, it's now the home of a space-age, Bond-worthy data center.
Instead of focusing on hardware and servers, the designers of this ultra high-tech data center decided to focus on humans, making it a hip and fun place to work. The center features greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and it can withstand a direct hit from a hydrogen bomb.
Design Straight Out of the Movies
The location of the facility was the inspiration for the unique design. Building a data center in an old nuclear bunker claims something out of the ordinary and a boring design would not do. To find inspiration for the center, the designers turned to science fiction movies like Logan's Run, Silent Running and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Additionally, the James Bond movies were a huge inspiration for the design. The designer even wanted to get a white cat, but realized that would be going a bit too far.
Word of Mouth Marketing
One of the hidden benefits for such an intriguing and interesting design is the word of mouth marketing it automatically produces. The space-age design, waterfalls, greenhouses, artificial sunlight and smoke machines make the data center stand out. Since collocation is one of the services they offer, customers frequently visit the facility. When something is this unique customers are sure to share what they saw with their friends and business associates. Something like that can not be ignored. Other companies will want to check it out and see what's so special about the center and voila, they have another customer.
Space-Age Features
But it's not just design and no substance. In fact the data center is just as high-tech as it is aesthetically pleasing.
o Located in a nuclear bunker- the data center is located at the site of an original nuclear bunker from the Cold War. It has also kept the original name: Pionen White Mountains
o Bomb Proof- located 100ft underground and in an original bomb Shelter, no hydrogen bomb is going to destroy these servers. It was built to be secure and protect soldiers in case of an attack. No longer needed for these purposes, it now protects servers … even from a nuclear attack.
o Triple Redundancy Internet- Losing internet connection is not a concern in this facility. Even though it's located deep inside the mountains, there are both fiber and copper wires running into the facility through the mountains from three different directions.
o Cooling- The facility uses Baltimore Aircoil fans to cool the facility to the effect of 1.5 megawatts. This is enough cooling to cool several hundred servers.
o Houses Sweden's largest ISP- this center is home to the NOC for all of Bahnhof's operations. This is the largest ISP in Sweden, with five locations- of which, Pionen is the largest. Additionally the data center is a colocation facility so you can put your servers there if you want.
This data center is by far the world's coolest data center and describes its title. It's tough competition for anyone to outdo Pionen, but if anyone is up to the challenge, the world could use more cool data centers.