When Deltalis was looking for a location for their new data centre and collocation facility, one of the things at the top of the list was the potential for making the facility as green as possible. What they found was beyond anyone's expectations. The new Deltalis RadixCloud ended up occupying space formerly used as the command-and-control centre of the Swiss Air Force, buried deep in the granite rock of the Alps.
Not only is the site now on the short list as a candidate for the Most Extreme DC Deployment 2012, but it also provides Deltalis customers with unprecedented security in a facility that is “ultra-green.” Deltalis RadixCloud takes advantage of the mountain's natural cooling and constant air temperature to maintain a facility where heating and cooling requires almost no resources. This keeps the facility's power and cooling energy needs at a minimum.
In order to make the former military space usable Deltalis had to find a way to adapt to what was already there. Remodelling was out of the question. To make it work they brought in Minkels to design and build a modular system that works with the space they have. Minkels' modular architecture was perfect for taking advantage of confined spaces, large pillars, and narrow hallways. They were able to use the space extremely efficiently through the use of custom-designed racks and containment systems.
In addition to minimal power needs, the site provides military grade security and reliability for a data centre and collocation facility that should be able to provide nearly 100% uptime for the foreseeable future. The site will not be hampered by weather, it has self-contained backup power for redundancy, and the physical structure itself is intimidating enough to keep unwanted visitors away. This is a big score for Deltalis RadixCloud.
An Important Step for Modularity
While building a data centre inside an ultra-secure military installation is an impressive feat in itself, more important is the fact that modular designs were used to build the systems. This is an important step for the furtherance of modularity in the data centre environment.
Modular solutions make it easier for data centre and colocation providers to make use of existing buildings rather than having to buy land and build from the ground up. Re-purposing old manufacturing sites, government buildings, and such could help contain costs of new data centre expansion while increasing the speed by which companies do expand.
With less money needed for construction, companies can further concentrate on green power and cooling as well. Not every new data centre will be able to take advantage of the natural heating and cooling of the Alps, but the possibilities for being much more energy-efficient are broadened significantly with the addition of modular data solutions.
As for Deltalis and Minkels, representatives from both companies will attend the DatacenterDynamics EMEA 2012 Awards in mid-December. Perhaps they'll walk away with the award for the Most Extreme DC Deployment 2012…
Data centers offering colocation services are sensible way-out for those involved in e-commerce activities. Most centers offer high speed connectivity with lower latency and higher bandwidth. Apart from that, colocation centers helps to reduce the expenses too. Instead of buying a new server and paying for technical support, security, cooling, maintenance, wages of employees etc. , one can simply rent or buy it at the colocation centers and the expenses get shared amongst the other owners. Those involved in online trading can benefit from the redundant power supply, since the chance of missing out on the daily trades get reduced.