10 Interesting & Unique Data Centers

Check out some of the most fascinating and innovative data centers located around the world! From bunkers to mines, housing for barnyard animals to buildings in plain sight, see some of the lengths companies will go to keep your data safe and sound.

10. Promoting biodiversity since 2008

Arup Associates / Via arupassociates.com

In Frankfurt, Germany, one data center is saving 13 million gallons of water a year by using fresh air cooling and reverse osmosis to reduce sediment build-up in cooling towers. By using virtualization, they've limited the number of physical servers needed, cutting back on heat output from equipment. On top of that, the building features a green roof made up of living plants to help cut back on runoff from the building, keeping it cool.

9. Green is the new black

DataCenterKnowledge / Via datacenterknowledge.com

IBM's data center at Syracuse University is being touted as its "greenest" facility yet, which incorporates a microturbine engine fueled by natural gas, absorption chillers, the reuse of waste heat in other buildings, DC power distribution and rear-door liquid cooling on cabinets to maximize energy efficiency.

8. Mining for data centers

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The Iron Mountain data bunker in Boyers, Pennsylvania is built into an old limestone mine. More than 200 feet underground is Room 48, an energy efficient data center that uses the mine's limestone walls to absorb heat and eliminate the need for typical data center cooling systems.

7. What came first, the data or the data center?

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If you think Yahoo's Computing Coop looks like a place you might keep your chickens, that's because some of it's design principles were adapted from chicken coops! The YCC is optimized for fresh air cooling, which they can use for the majority of the year.

6. Nuclear bomb safe... if you can find it

PC Authority / Via pcauthority.com.au

Tucked away in the forests of Kloetinge, Southern Netherlands lies the entrance to the Cyberbunker, a four-level Cold War-era nuclear bunker made up of numerous tunnels and operations rooms.

5. A data center for the world's smallest nation?

PC Authority / Via pcauthority.com.au

Once the home of a data haven and data hosting services company, Roughs Tower (previously HM Fort Roughs) is the capital of the Principality of Sealand, an unofficial micronation off the coast of southeast England.

4. Little data center on the prairie

Prairie Bunkers / Via prairiebunkers.com

Reusing old World War II naval munitions bunkers, this data center park outside of Hastings, Nebraska, isn't so little. Geothermal cooling saves on energy costs for the 750-acre site.

3. Shaken, not stirred

DataCenterKnowledge / Via datacenterknowledge.com

In an underground bunker 100 feet beneath Stockholm, Sweden lies a data center facility fit for a Bond villain. In fact, it's become known as the "James Bond Villain Data Center" to some. This former military bunker was designed to withstand a blast from a hydrogen bomb!

2. In plain sight

Gizmodo / Via gizmodo.com

Nearly a century after their construction, two Art Deco skyscrapers built in the late '20s and early '30s for Western Union and AT&T sit in the middle of Lower Manhattan, currently functioning as data centers for Telx, an internet services company.

1. Resistance is Futile?

Tech Republic / Via techrepublic.com

Just outside the city of Covilha, Portugal, sits what will become one of Europe's largest data centers. The four-building complex will be surrounded by a moat that creates a microclimate that cools the environment and collects rain, and will allow the the site's owners to use fresh air for cooling 99% of the time.