Sunday, October 24, 2010

The World's Most Secure Data Center

The Swedish carrier Bahnhof offers its clientele bombproof bits.

If the whistleblower organization Wikileaks wanted to bolster its image as a league of invulnerable digital superheroes, it's found the right subterranean lair. Swedish broadband carrier Bahnhof confirms that some Wikileaks servers are now hosted in its Pionen data center, converted from an underground Cold War-era nuclear bunker in downtown Stockholm. The server farm, carved out of a 100-foot-tall granite hill, has a single entrance, protected by 20-inch-thick steel doors. Bahnhof Chairman Jon Karlung says the facility sends a message to clients: Your data are safe from all intrusions, physical or legal. "The resemblance to a James Bond setting is purely intentional."

Article Controls

1. CONFERENCE ROOM A glass conference room is embedded in the cave's rock ceiling with eight 13-foot-long steel bolts.

2. NETWORK OPERATIONS CENTER The room now holding Bahnhof's NOC was built to command Stockholm's civil defense during a nuclear winter.

3. ENTRANCE The data center offers only one way in or out. A planned "Batcave"-like chute from the surface was nixed due to budget concerns.

4. GENERATORS The facility's two backup generators were originally designed for German submarines.

5. SERVER HALL Would Pionen's 8,000 servers survive a nuclear blast? "I'm not sure about the people, but the machines would survive," says Bahnhof Chairman Jon Karlung.

Lagos says yes to WIMAX

Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, is about to receive a boost in its Internet connectivity. According to goingwimax.com, Swift Networks has already begun testing a WIMAX network system in different parts of the city. The tests involve five hundred participants, who were chosen based on their Internet broadband requirements.

Chuma Okoye, COO of Swift Networks, said that the new network is aimed at addressing connectivity needs in terms of video, fax, phone service, and broadband. If successful, the service will see local businesses and banks strongly benefiting from the higher speed of the 4G WIMAX network.