Eight Pictures of the World's Stunning Datacenters
Someday, these could be Skynet.
Big datacenters aren't typically places of beauty – at least not to the common eye without knowledge of computer hardware and industrial design. While the main goal of a datacenter is squarely on practicality, there's still a lot to be appreciated about these massive systems in place that serve us bits and bytes.
TechRepublic has a gallery showing off the new Microsoft Data Center in Chicago. Here are a few of our favorites.
Microsoft's facility is a model in practicality, but which datacenter is the most stylish? Bahnhof, an ISP in Sweden, must be one of the forerunners. Believe it or not, Bahnhof's data center is located in a Cold War-era underground nuclear bunker and has waterfall fountains and exotic fish. Check out the pictures and video below.
via Hack N Mod.
Do you work in a datacenter? How do these places compared to your workplace?
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my data center uses hamsters.
wow these look awesome..the building in chicago looks like those crazy rooms you see in the movies, and well same for the sweden datacenter also. something like the batcave..just awesome.
But..why are they spending so much on this?...there's just no way they're using that datacenter to its full potential.
That's no water fall! That's Fluorinert!
Anyways, why the green/blue lighting in Pic #1 and #2?
I'd love to work at Bahnhof's data center.
Female Swedish employees + transparent flooring = WIN
I want one.
Female Swedish employees + transparent flooring = WIN
lol, EPIC WIN!
Female Swedish employees + transparent flooring = WIN
I laughed.
pretty sure that is a bond villans HQ
well, if the underground bunker has the same temps as deep caves i have been in (around 59F or 15C), it should keep the data center nice and cool.
As for all the data center pics. all i can say is... oooooo and aaaaaa.
Imagine the seti units these places could crunch
But can it.... Take over the world?
The MS data center looks very professional just by its magnitude and how clean it looks.
Ehh i guess ill take two just For redundancy
But can it run Crysis?? You bet!!
a) everything is in server cabinets b) it's really freaking loud and c) it's severely lacking in blonde swedish hotties...
Erm - Banhof accepting applications?!
I think I'm ready to move to Sweden now...
@ exfileme :
Mine uses chickens to push the buttons
crap i wish my dc looked like that lol
wow. I've had a hand in building more than a few data centers, and at the most mine were a testament to cable management (cat 6 and fiber). No architectural aesthetics, let alone beauty were ever a consideration. I still take pride into neatly running 5000+ data cables into a server room the size of a small closet and adequately cooling the equipment.
Bush league compared to this stuff though. Hell, flat amateur compared to this.
Anyone else feel like those pictures of the Swedish data center belong in a sci-fi FPS? Crysis 3?
nuke 'em...
wow with a place like that any gaming at all will look like world domination!
TO THE BAT-CAVE!!
LOL idk but it looks like something from Portal O_O
Hey look its more pictures from toms hardware's offices
some people might not think it but even in those banks of computers theirs still quite a tranquil beauty about the functional symmetry of the entire thing
So...anyone wonder how much information can actually be stored in these places, and is there any chance at all that any of them are being used to their full potential?
Yep, definitely in Die Another Day.
I think mine is the primordial ooze that these data centers evolved from.
Sweden: even our nuke bunkers look like Ikea.
Are those solar panels on the floor of the third picture..
I wonder what the humidity level is in that place with all of the water and plants everywhere. Humidity + computers is a bad combination