Originally posted to BISNOW by Annie Gaus,
Underground data centers may call to mind ultra-secure, massive government facilities like Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, a bunker complex built under 2,000 feet of granite that hosts defense intelligence and operations, built to withstand a nuclear blast.
Of course, few organizations need quite that level of security. But with extreme weather events growing more common — floods, severe storms and other disasters have all accelerated over the past several decades, causing trillions of dollars in economic damage — underground data centers present unique advantages for a certain type of customer.
A handful of colocation firms, such as Boston-based Iron Mountain, have offered underground data center space for some time. Built in a limestone mine, Iron Mountain’s underground data center sits in Boyers, Pennsylvania, and offers 333K SF and 40 megawatts of total potential capacity as part of a larger 200-acre colocation campus. Other parts of the country with similar geological properties see an opportunity to build data centers in unused mines.
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