Cloud service provider Aiber Networks announced plans in late June to convert an underground military facility into a Finland data center.
The site was once an airplane factory in the 1930s, carved into the the side of cliffs in the city of Tampere. The facility was used by the state-owned aviation company to create heavy machinery and planes for Finland and later the Soviet Union. Now, the caves will be used to host high availability cloud services.
"We are happy that a perfect solution was found to the old Härmälä caves. The data center business is modern industrialism and these digital factories fit well in the industrial traditions of Tampere," said Timo Antikainen, the city's director for business and economic development.
Aiber Networks, though a new startup founded this year, already operates one underground facility in Tampere. The new Finland data center will be the company's second. The caves in which the company is building are made up of three separate tunnels that will each be used for individual data halls. The site offers roughly 13,000 square feet of space, as well as the ability to support up to 50 kW per rack, with a total power consumption of up to 4 MW. The new Tampere data center is being designed to meet Tier IV specifications and will feature a high degree of automation. Both free cooling and liquid cooling will be employed, and waste heat will be sold to the city's electrical company.
The project is estimated to cost between $55 million and $110 million dollars when it is fully completed. Work is already underway, and Aiber has already starting signing up its first customers. The first phase of the facility is expected to come online by October 2015.
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