Considering how much space is needed to devote to a data center and how limited necessary resources are, it may not be surprising that people are getting so creative with their data center design - but it is completely awesome.  The latest neat data center spot is an experimental infrastructure in a limestone cave.

At 300 million years old, the joke is that this might be the oldest building ever to qualify for LEED certification.  Naturally porous limestone is great for circulating heat out of the data center, and an underground lake nearby provides cooling.  Pretty great setup, right?

Of course there are concerns about if this will actually be as efficient as it's touted to be, or if it's really more of a novelty.  Novelty or not, it's important to be creative where we can and make do with what we've got, and this idea is pretty spectacular.  As a claustrophobe I wouldn't want to work down there personally, but I sure know some people who would.

Check out the full article, complete with Iron Mountain's pictures.

-Elizabeth English

photo by ell brown under flickr creative commons license

---

Share this with your network!