Data Centers in Strange Places 187
johannacw writes "Would you house a data center in a diamond mine or an old chapel? These organizations did, with great success; many of these facilities offer the latest in cooling and energy technology, among other advances. 'If you want an even more hardened environment for your data, you might look at the aptly named InfoBunker in Boone, Iowa, about an hour outside Des Moines. [...] The 65,000-square-foot, five-story site is dug deep into the ground. No one gets in without passing though the 4.5-ton steel door and then a three-step process. A scanner uses radio frequency to read the would-be entrant's skin as a biometric identifier. He then needs to use a keycard and enter a code on the keypad. This three-tier security is standard for high-level military installations, McGinnis explains.'"
Seems excessive (Score:5, Funny)
hmmm (Score:4, Funny)
Only if I had enough bunk space for my horde of minions, but yes, probably.
Step right this way sir (Score:5, Interesting)
"The Missile Base consists of 57 acres of real estate. The center secured portion of the property is protected by the original barbed-wire-topped chainlink fence. There is a paved road leading into the property with dual entry gates.
Above ground is the original 40 X 100 shop building, two concrete targeting structures, two manufactured homes, two 8 X 8 X 40 storage containers, and the silo tops of the three missile silos, two antenna silos, one entry portal and a few other misc structures.
Below ground is a huge complex consisting of 16 buildings and thousands of feet of connecting tunnels. The major underground structures are:
Three - 160' Tall Missile Silos
Three - 4 story Equipment Terminal Buildings
Three - Fuel Terminal Buildings
Two - 6 story Antenna Silos
One Air Intake/Filtration Building
One 100' diameter Control Dome Building
One 125' diameter Power Dome Building
One - 6 story Entry Portal Building
and a few other misc buildings and areas."
- http://www.themissilebase.com/ [themissilebase.com]
http://cgi.ebay.com/Titan-Missile-Base-Central-Washington_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ1607QQihZ009QQitemZ190132455924QQrdZ1 [ebay.com]
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10 [penny-arcade.com]
If only I had the money and the crazy and the US citizenship necessary
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3m thick walls, TEMPEST shielding, fences, dogs, even frickin' EMP protection...
WiFi reception... (Score:2)
I always wonder. (Score:5, Funny)
Basements with backup power, secured doors, & a good fire system in my opinion. Then again, I'm not a CIO. Once I become one though, well, I imagine MY data center will have a golf course. And blackjack. And possibly hookers.
that's a futuristic plan. (Score:3, Insightful)
And don't forget the full stock of Olde Fortran malt liquor.
Old bunkers often have good Cooling and Power (Score:5, Interesting)
U.S. geography isn't always that cooperative - most of the missile bunkers were out in not-even-flyover parts of the country like North Dakota and eastern Montana, where there was almost no telecom infrastructure nearby and it was tens of milliseconds away from SF, NYC, or even Chicago.
And Canada has their own problems - even though most of the people live within 50 miles of the US border, the Canadian government has been doing things like offering tax incentives to put call centers in remote areas to deal with unemployment - former fishing ports in Prince Edward Island, etc. - where there's not enough local telecom infrastructure to get high bandwidth connections or diverse routes. Too bad, since they've got a pool of educated people who speak good English and something that passes for French and could use the jobs.
I'll give you a futuristic plan... (Score:4, Funny)
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"Ah, Mr Wlad. I offer you a simple choice. Either die in my shark tank, or pay me... one trillion dollars per MP3 on your hard drive. Muhahahahaha..." Etc., etc.
Re:I always wonder. (Score:5, Funny)
If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
Cold? Check. Solar-power ready? Check. Visible from earth so that everyone can see my giant penis^H^H^H^H^H data-centre? CHECK.
Re:If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
2400-2700ms minimum latency? Check!
Re:If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
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And I clearly need to take a walk to clear my head.
Re:If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm a beaver, and they're my rivers, you insensitive clod!
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Arctic circle !
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9041041&pageNumber=2 [computerworld.com]
That being DeBeers' one I guess this is also the one located in a diamond mine.
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Um... I guess you forgot about the polar bears?
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No problem. I don't have to run faster than the polar bears - just faster than YOU! :-)
Hey nay sayers (Score:2)
Screw latency, I'm talking free trip to the moon!
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I would go for 300,000ms minimum latency. Even so, I heard it's not enough in practice. Yes, that's what I heard.
Re:If I were a CIO... (Score:5, Funny)
It's the solar system's biggest porn collection.
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I think somebody [google.com] might already be planning this,... ;-)
Re:I always wonder. (Score:4, Insightful)
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You say that like it's a bad thing. Really, is making the CIO feel cool all that much worse than whatever the datacenter is doing anyway? It's probably calculating stock prices, keeping track of financial information, caching web pages, or whatever. It's all just the mental masturbation of modern society anyway. Might as well feel cool doing it, then some concrete good will come of it.
It is a bad thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of the dot-com era, really. How many times have you heard companies going "we're secure because we use 128 bit HTTPS! See that padlock icon? It means we're secure!" and then they forgot to check rights in their web site and/or just leave internal files around in the web server's directories or on some public FTP directory? Or leave their web server, some active ftp daemon, and God knows what else run with the default admin password? I can think of a couple which cheerfully left text files with user data and credit card numbers available for everyone. But, hey, they have 128 bit HTTPS, so they're secure.
Or I know of at least one corporation which bought all sorts of expensive appliances to scan all JMS messages and SQL statements for malicious stuff... but then noone actually configured rules for those. They used them effectively as some magical talisman that makes them secure just by being there, no extra work required. And some of them were bogus talismans anyway, pure snake oil that couldn't even have done the job right.
_That_ is the problem. When someone is as disconnected from reality as to think that security means preventing teams of ninjas from physically breaking in, something tells me that they probably didn't have thought much about actual security. And will think even less about it in the future.
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Let's put it like this (Score:3, Insightful)
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My company lost two of our four major data centers in the 9/11 attack on the WTC. Completely independent of the many other effects of 9/11, the loss of those data centers and the related downtime and confusion and disruption of service had
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9/11 is relevant, as it demonstrated to my company a need for rather more extreme physical security measures. Our data centers were in fairly stout, very secure buildings -- and one was completely destroyed, and the other was nearly destroyed (along with major portions of our headquarters
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Re:I always wonder. (Score:4, Funny)
I got a 65,000-square-foot, five-story data center with a 4.5-ton steel door... IN MY PANTS!
Basically, yes (Score:5, Insightful)
- pissed off admin exports the customer database and sells it to a spammer
- a hired rent-a-coder working at home is given an export of the fucking productive database, just so he can work out the report formatting. So he asks for help in a forum and attaches a zip file of said productive database. Just so, you know, others can try their hand at formatting that data too. (And if you think that's a one-off thing, at a recent consulting job I've seen exactly that happen, with the dumbass PHB's blessing. They exported the productive database, installed it on a test machine, then let the external contractor -- not me, but the guy whose neverending mess I was supposed to help fix -- copy it all on his private laptop too. And since he was not supposed to connect an external laptop to the internal network, the PHB cheerfully supplied an USB stick to transfer the data with. Made me cringe. But, hey, he was cheaper than doing it in-house.)
- productive data, complete with customer names and personal data, is copied on some salesman's laptop, because god forbid that you inconvenience the sales guys in the least bit, even by making them log in to a web site. Plus, I'm sure he thinks he's a wizard with Excel and God knows what ad-hoc graphs and reports he might need to generate on the spot from that data. Then said laptop is forgotten on the airport or stolen. (I can remember a dozen or so instances of this in the news without even googling.)
- social engineering and/or lax security standards (As an extreme case, I've actually worked for a dot-com back in the day, who told their 1st level support to give anyone an admin account who calls in and asks for one. It's easier than just creating one for the regional managers -- although I'd debate whether those need one in the first place. Nah, just tell them to phone in and ask for one. Eventually after a year they realized that they have a few thousand admin accounts and nobody knows who those people are.)
- pwned machines on the internal network that haven't been patched since Jurassic. I remember one touching story about IIRC Slammer, where a company got hit hard because they were running with completely unpatched workstations, since apparently installing any service pack broke one of the internal applications they were using. And, of course, they'd rather save money than fix the stupid application.
- pwned machines on the internal network because some dumbass PHB or marketter figured out (or bribed an engineer for the knowledge) how to open a tunnel from inside to his home machine and leave it on, so he can access the company network from home. So when his unprotected, crapware-ladden home machine got pwned, it was connected to the intranet.
- pwned machines on the internal network because just about anyone is allowed to plug their laptop in
The last three are especially nice if everything is one big network zone.
- pwned machines because some dumbass programmer would rather argue that SQL-injection and cross-site-scripting are just hype, instead of fixing his freakin' application. I'm still suprised at the number of people who don't even know how to quote a string for use in a web page or in the database. Or better yet, to use prepared statements and/or some template/framework that handles that kind of thing for you. And, yes, I remember at least one article linked even on Slashdot where the idiot was arguing that cross-site-scripting vulnerabilities are inevitable and harmless.
- pwnage via any of the above methods (including social engineering or dishonest employees) because noone bothered setting productive database passwords more creative than the same as the app name, and/or using more than one account for a whole department. Or indeed for the whole company. It's too much work
Re:Basically, yes (Score:5, Funny)
Outsourcing... (Score:2)
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That's because they're too busy mining gold in Mongolia [guardian.co.uk].
Thanks for the correction (Score:2)
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IN all honesty though, a freaking suspended glass NOC? Does it really matter whether you can see the server racks or not?
Don't forget the... (Score:2, Funny)
A glass NOC makes you feel like you have extra eyes to protect against somebody being where they shouldn't, but slides are cool stuff manard.
Here is a list of other stuff a _real_ datacenter should have:
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Hmmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
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1. Sex
2. ??????
3. Pregnant!
Must...contain...the EVIL (Score:2, Funny)
Patented by Google (Score:2, Interesting)
So, they are paying Google royalties [slashdot.org] for the technology which Google invented, right?
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Like this? [sun.com]
..in Strange Places (Score:5, Funny)
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So (Score:3, Insightful)
Best one I've seen (Score:5, Interesting)
The escalators go up to the floor and promptly end at a wall. A one way mirror hides an RFID reader which 'open sesame' style activates the wall to move and let you in.
No signs, or outward indications as to it being there. Lotsa space, redundant everything and all hiding in plain sight. It was pretty cool.
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-b
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Hiding in plain sight (Score:2)
I've had occasional reasons to visit some of our "secret" government offices, usually multi-agency installations sort-of gathered under a DHS umbrella. The last one I went to had no sign outside, no sign on the door, no number on the door. How did I know I was standing at the right door? In this non-descript office building in a ho-hum industrial park, there were 50 cars parked outside with US government plate
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Pizza deliveries (Score:2)
Anybody out there know the source of this story?
Yeah, US Govt. (Score:2)
Gee whiz, wonder what that is there.
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oblig (Score:2)
I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you.
If you negotiate the minefield in the drive (Score:2)
and if you make it past the shotgun in the hall
dial the combination open the priesthole...
There's frikken sharks with laser beams!!!
A Note On The Three Check Security Approach (Score:5, Insightful)
1. What you are. (Iris scan, biometric readings, fingerprints, etc.)
2. What you have. (ID card, USB flash drive, random number security key, etc.)
3. What you know. (Password, etc.)
You are going to see a lot more systems use a "two out of three" approach. I actually thought, at one point, that this was going to be a requirement for Vista. I guess not.
The system in TFA requires all three: what you are, what you know, what you have. While requiring three out of three might seem a little nuts, it will seem less nuts in a few years when everyone has to have at least two out of three in order to do basic things like log onto their computer.
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"Cowboy Neil"
2) What is your quest?
"To fix the bricked file server"
3) What is the Emacs key binding for going to the previous line and decreasing the indent?
"What? I don't know tha.. AARRRRGGGHHHHH!"
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Also, #3 also tells the system who you are unless you have given your password to someone else. If you give it away voluntarily, you are an idiot. If you give it away at gunpoint, then likely they would have found a way to drag your biometrics along with them.
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1. If you know that someone might need to access your account in advance, you can register their fingerprint with your account. The combination of your password and their fingerprint is two out of three.
2. You can leave a USB key somewhere hidden in your office / bedroom / etc. In the case of an emergency, you call up your business partner / family member and tell them where the USB key is
Sealand... (Score:2)
tm
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one isn't enough (Score:3, Insightful)
The sites should be separated by physical distance and political jurisdictions. Data lost isn't limited to physical problems. It can come in the form of a legal scavenger hunt. Both can put you out of business.
Are they allowed to sacrifice in the chapel? (Score:4, Funny)
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Probably have to, to keep all the daemons happy....
tm
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For the non-existent service they provided.
missile silos (Score:2, Insightful)
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Bunkers in military comm sites (Score:3, Informative)
H2O? (Score:2)
not sure i want that in my datacenter...
Above the ceiling (Score:3, Interesting)
File server, print server, dual tape loaders, UPS, all setting on shelves, mounted above the level a suspended ceiling, with a mirrored fail-over setup at the opposite side of the building, also above ceiling-level.
It was a medical office and they were floor-space constrained so 'going up' seemed the logical solution (there was an absurd amount of space up there.) They'd had the electrician in to put outlets up there, the shelves were reinforced and had a lip added so nothing accidentally slid off (there was even a strap with a buckle to make sure nothing ever dropped down.) The hardest part was lifting the hardware up into place.
It was a complete "you've got to be kidding!" scenario when I first saw it, but I had to admit for a crazy location it was a sweet setup and worked great for their needs.
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Installing computer equipment above the ceiling would be a violation of building codes in many cases, especially if the above ceiling space is used for air return. The national electric code prohibits such installations by banning the use of flexible cords above the ceiling:
400.8(5) Flexible cords shall not be used where concealed by walls, floors or ceilings or located above suspended ceilings.
Generally, the only time receptacles can be installed above a ceiling is the provide the receptacle requir
Church of the Poisoned (Score:2)
Re-done by Boy George...
this remembers me... (Score:2, Interesting)
you can have a look at it here [hochu.li]. internet-hype at it's finest...
the company (mount10) does not exist anymore but the datacenter still does and is beeing actively used by Swiss Fort Knox [swissfortknox.com]...
Why the door? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Possibly to trap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantrap [wikipedia.org] the person inside so the police can be called to arrest them?
strike
All this physical security (Score:3, Funny)
"225 watts of power" (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like a denominator is missing. Likely candidates are:
Reporters puzzle me. I realize they're not EE's, but don't they have some tenuous linkage to reality? Does 225 watts for an entire data center sound right to a reporter?
And watts of power are my favorite watts. As opposed to watts of mass, newsprint, or innumeracy.
Dubious Security (Score:2)
There are problems with playing "military installation" when you're not a government. What do you do when someone shows up at your front door with apparent legal author
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A blast door is not necessarily resistant to burglary. It's installed from the outside and can generally be removed from the outside. I saw the blast door at the Titan missile base in Arizona, and while it's an impressive chunk of steel, it has some glaring differences from a bank vault door. Such as only a single locking point (
An old bunker is not so strange anyway. (Score:2)
Cheap real-estate and green electricity (Score:2)
Digging that deep (Score:2)
Getting data lines to unique locations? (Score:2)
Inside a greenhouse? (Score:2)
I dunno, seems like an awfully strange place to be setting up a data center.
Re:But no data security? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:BC Datacenter Move Replaces Linksys Infrastruct (Score:2)
Re:BC Datacenter Move Replaces Linksys Infrastruct (Score:2)
This is more train-wreck than datacenter.
Re:BC Datacenter Move Replaces Linksys Infrastruct (Score:2)