Skip to main content
Tech Radar
  • Tech Radar Pro
  • Tech Radar Gaming
Tech Radar Pro TechRadar the business technology experts
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
RSS
Asia
flag of Singapore
Singapore
Europe
flag of Danmark
Danmark
flag of Suomi
Suomi
flag of Norge
Norge
flag of Sverige
Sverige
flag of UK
UK
flag of Italia
Italia
flag of Nederland
Nederland
flag of België (Nederlands)
België (Nederlands)
flag of France
France
flag of Deutschland
Deutschland
flag of España
España
North America
flag of US (English)
US (English)
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of México
México
Australasia
flag of Australia
Australia
flag of New Zealand
New Zealand
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Expert Insights
  • Website builders
  • Web hosting
  • Security
Trending
  • Best web hosting
  • Best office chairs
  • Best website builder
  • Best antivirus
  • Expert Insights
Recommended reading
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Pro Data centers are at the heart of the AI revolution and here's how they are changing
+/-400VDC power delivery: AC-to-DC sidecar power rack
Pro Microsoft, Google, and Meta have borrowed EV tech for the next big thing in data centers: 1MW watercooled racks
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Pro Sustainability Week: Scaling AI - how the UK’s hyperscale data centers are evolving for sustainability and growth
People in datacenter
Pro AI workloads are reshaping infrastructure - here’s what data centers need to know
An AI face in profile against a digital background.
Pro Seawater’s role in surfing the AI wave
Data center racks with cables and servers
Pro Rethinking power: how AI is reshaping energy demands in data centers
A person standing in front of a rack of servers inside a data center
Pro Slowdown? What slowdown? Microsoft signs huge $544 million data centre deal with UAE's Telco Du
  1. Pro

10 extreme data centers that look straight out of a sci-fi movie

News
By Jamie Carter published 19 December 2017

Facebook, Microsoft and the rest are building their data centres in some unlikely - and stunning - locations

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Your local library is now in the Arctic Circle, in a desert in Utah, and deep inside a Norwegian mountain. The information society we now live in is built upon an interconnected cloud of racks of servers, archives and supercomputers in disparate data centers around the globe. As research by IT solutions company Comtec reveals, the emails and documents, the 'Likes' and the bytes we produce each day are stored, analysed and archived in some pretty unlikely locations away from the threats of cyber attacks, nuclear warfare and natural disasters. This is the world of the extreme data center.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Arctic World Archive, Svalbard, Norway

Arctic World Archive, Svalbard, Norway

One day in the far future an explorer or archaeologist will come across something incredible; a trove of offline analogue data from our digital civilisation. 

"We wanted to use film as the ultimate off-line long term preservation storage medium," says Rune Bjerkestrand Founder of PIQL, who runs the cyber attack-proof Arctic World Archive, also known as the digital world's 'Doomsday Vault'. 

The location, 300m below the ground in a converted mine shaft, was influenced by the remoteness of the nearby Svalbard Global Seed Vault at 77° N latitude. So the Arctic World Archive was built nearby in Longyearbyen, here on a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Safe from natural disasters and nuclear bombs, this permafrost home is a place for data to live forever … but it will cost you to put it there (which explains why most of the AWA's customers are national governments). 

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)/Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)/Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

Who needs religion when you've got supercomputers? That most modern of icons – a massive supercomputer – is hidden beneath the 19th century Torre Girona chapel in Barcelona, Spain. 

"Most of the scientific disciplines now use technology for the development of knowledge," says Sergi Girona, Operations Department Director at the BSC. "It's mostly devoted to science, but only the most excellent and brilliant scientists get access." 

Its tenant is MareNostrum 4, the most powerful supercomputer in Europe (and the world's 13th most powerful, which might say something about how far behind Europe has fallen), which was last year used to detect gravitational waves, created when two black holes collide. 

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Yahoo's Lockport, New York

Yahoo's Lockport, New York

About 350 miles from Manhattan, Lockport hosts the Yahoo Compute Coop data center, a US$150 million, 155,000 square ft. facility opened in 2015 that uses hydroelectric power generated from Niagara Falls. It's based around the long, open-plan design of a chicken coop, a patented design that encourages air-flow. Inside are about 50,000 servers. 

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Microsoft's Project Natick, Pacific Ocean

Microsoft's Project Natick, Pacific Ocean

Although only an experiment so far, Microsoft is hoping to prove that data should be stored underwater. The concept is simple; 50% of the world's population live near the coast, so that's where data should reside. By putting standard servers in watertight containers, then tethering them to the coast, the cables – and therefore the latency – should be reduced without having to use valuable land. 2015's Project Natick saw a 38,000lb/17,237kg cylindrical vessel measuring 10x7ft./3x2m anchored over half a mile off the US Pacific coast. It was recovered months later with the data still in immaculate condition. 

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Utah Data Centre, Bluffdale, Utah

Utah Data Centre, Bluffdale, Utah

This is where snoopers put their stolen secrets. Also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative Data Centre, this 2014-built facility in the nondescript town of Bluffdale, Utah, is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community… and that means the National Security Agency, which doesn't have a good reputation, post-Snowden. We're talking exabytes (one billion gigabytes) of data that's not connected to the internet; this is an offline data collection storage site for data from the internet and telephone networks. 

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
IceCube Lab, Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, Antarctica

IceCube Lab, Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, Antarctica

This data center supports the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a particle detector at the South Pole that looks for neutrinos from exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, and black hole collisions; energies a million times greater than nuclear reactions. The IceCube detector itself is a cubic kilometre of ice studded with over 5,000 optical sensors, which detect 275 atmospheric neutrinos daily. There's no way all that data can be sent by satellite, so the IceCube Lab (ICL) data center supports the scientists at Amundsen-Scott South Pole station with over 1,200 computing cores and three petabytes of storage. 

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Green Mountain, Stavanger, Norway

Green Mountain, Stavanger, Norway

With the IT industry’s energy footprint accounting for 7% of global electricity in 2012 and 12% by 2017, according to Greenpeace, 'dirty' data centers aren't good for business. Cue a trend for those that run on 100% renewable energy, like the data center hidden inside Green Mountain near Stavanger, Norway, which uses hydro-electric power and water-cooling. Built into an old NATO hideaway, owner Smedvig claims that the 22,000 square metre facility has the lowest Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating in the world, and a carbon footprint of virtually zero. 

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Luleå Facebook Data Center, Sweden

Luleå Facebook Data Center, Sweden

This is where your likes are stored. Why build a data center in the Arctic Circle? Facebook puts its US$500 Million.

Data centre up here at 65° N in 2011 not to see the Northern Lights, but to save energy. One of the biggest costs for data center managers is cooling systems, which tend to use a lot of electricity. That's far less of an issue in Luleå where fresh air (as cold as -10.1°C/14°F in winter) is used to cool the building. The rest of the power for Facebook's only data center outside the USA is provided by hydro electricity. 

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Hamina Google data center, Finland

Hamina Google data center, Finland

This is where the search ends. Google's also playing the Arctic Circle card, opening one of its most advanced and efficient data centers in Hamina, Finland in 2011. Located 145 km/90 miles east of the country's capital Helsinki, it's much further south than Luleå, principally so it can use seawater from the Gulf of Finland to chill the servers. Not by direct immersion, obviously, but by pumping raw seawater into heat exchangers, which transfer the heat generated by the servers to the seawater. The facility used to be a paper mill dating back to 1950s, so most of the infrastructure was already in place. 

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Chi2AD, Chile

Chi2AD, Chile

The ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array at Chajnantor is physically the largest astronomical project in existence. Its 66 high precision antennas on the Chajnantor Plateau (at an altitude of 4576 to 5044m) together make one a single radio telescope, and it's at one of the highest and driest astronomical observatory sites on Earth. 

More powerful than the Hubble Space telescope, it's used to study molecular gas and dust, the so-called 'cool Universe'. And that requires data storage. Cue the China-Chile Astronomical Data Center (Chi2AD), which provides storage and processing capacity to local and foreign astronomers at ALMA. With 0.7 petabytes, this Huawei-built data center will be able to store ALMA archive data for the next nine years.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Social Links Navigation

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),

  • How to build the ultimate livestreaming PC
You may like
  • Racks of servers inside a data center. Data centers are at the heart of the AI revolution and here's how they are changing
  • +/-400VDC power delivery: AC-to-DC sidecar power rack Microsoft, Google, and Meta have borrowed EV tech for the next big thing in data centers: 1MW watercooled racks
  • Racks of servers inside a data center. Sustainability Week: Scaling AI - how the UK’s hyperscale data centers are evolving for sustainability and growth
Read more
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Data centers are at the heart of the AI revolution and here's how they are changing
+/-400VDC power delivery: AC-to-DC sidecar power rack
Microsoft, Google, and Meta have borrowed EV tech for the next big thing in data centers: 1MW watercooled racks
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Sustainability Week: Scaling AI - how the UK’s hyperscale data centers are evolving for sustainability and growth
People in datacenter
AI workloads are reshaping infrastructure - here’s what data centers need to know
An AI face in profile against a digital background.
Seawater’s role in surfing the AI wave
Data center racks with cables and servers
Rethinking power: how AI is reshaping energy demands in data centers
Latest in Pro
Cloud in Hand
“It's an incredibly exciting time” - Google Cloud head on why embracing AI could be the best move your business could make
Laptop, chair, desk, webcam, and keyboard on a green background next to a TechRadar badge reading 'Big Savings'
I've seen so many amazing deals for business pros and students that don't need a Prime membership over Prime Day that I'm finally calling them out
 Corsair EX400U 4TB SSD on a green background next to a TechRadar badge reading 'Price Cut'
Yes, you can still get this super-fast SSD deal at its Prime Day price, but I don't think it's going to stay this cheap for long
Seagate Exos M HDD
36TB Seagate Exos SATA hard drive goes on preorder for $800 - world's largest HDD is already sold as refurbished, but why?
Orico 2TB SSD Prime Day
This Orico 2TB SSD deal is one of the best I've seen all throughout Prime Day - and I'm sort of annoyed that it won't stay this price when the deals end tonight
Crucial x10 8tb prime day
With this Crucial 8TB SSD deal, I have absolutely no excuse not to take and store as many photos as I possibly can
Latest in News
The Samsung Galaxy Ring in Titanium Silver Colorway
As well as the Galaxy Ring 2, Samsung is also looking at smart earrings, necklaces, and other wearables
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE balanced on its front showing home screen menu
The latest Samsung Galaxy S25 FE leak may have revealed two key upgrades for the phone
Google Pixel 9 in green Wintergreen color showing AI features on screen
A fresh leak means we may have pricing details for the Google Pixel 10
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra camera
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is rumored to be be getting a major camera upgrade
The Oakley Meta HSTN smart glasses being used by a basketball player
You can finally preorder the Oakley Meta smart glasses, but there's a catch
Squid Game's masked enforcers line up in a V formation
Squid Game: The Challenge season 3 is a win for Netflix, but one unhinged game from the K-drama can’t be replicated
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. 1
    Self-destructing internal SSD goes live with a one-click unstoppable data destruction promise - even if the power supply is cut
  2. 2
    Next-gen PCIe 6.0 SSD to reach 512GB in capacity and 28GBps in performance, almost 2X faster than PCIe 5.0, but I can't see it reaching my desktop PC before 2030
  3. 3
    This gorgeous minimalist computer monitor is powered by a single cable — but don't call it a portable monitor
  4. 4
    Chinese vendor launches first workstation PC with Intel's fastest CPU and up to two Arc Pro B60 GPUs, possibly with 48GB of RAM each
  5. 5
    This addictive Netflix games app might not be for you but your kids are gonna love it

TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Contact Us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Web notifications
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...