Databases In Caves? A Unique Google Fiber Bid 124
An anonymous reader writes "Plenty of cities have submitted bids for the Google Fiber project, with most of their bids being centered around the attributes that could describe many communities. Yet one small midwestern town, with much less fanfare than the metropolitan bids, provided an unusual proposition for Google in their likely quixotic nomination. Quincy, IL, has an extensive series of underground caverns that could provide year-round temperature control, dedicated hydroelectric power, and security in the case of a terrorist attack."
Carthage, MO has that as well (Score:4, Informative)
Big former limestone quarry with a bunch of underground storage. Town has its own electric utility too.
Re:no, caves suck (Score:2, Informative)
1. they are hard to get to
2. they are hard to get supplies to and build in
3. they flood
4. they have air quality issues
5. and they ARE cool... until you put a bunch of servers in them, and then they heat up, and STAY hot, and are harder to cool than on the surface
the idea of servers in caves sucks
1. Having seen these caves first hand, I know for a fact that a good many of them can be driven into directly, doesn't get much easier to get to than that.
2. (See 1)
3. Haven't seen or heard of much flooding in these.
4. The ones I've driven past have massive ventilation fans outside, and can handle removing vehicle exhaust. What are you doing to the air quality in there that's worse than exhaust? Burrito day?
5. Not sure on 5, but they do manage to store refrigerated goods in them, as another poster points out. I'd handle this by drilling wells into the floor of the cave and circulating water if the cooling wasn't sufficient.
Re:no, caves suck (Score:2, Informative)
1) Believe it or not, roads are allowed to lead to caves.
2) Believe it or not, roads are allowed to lead INTO caves.
3) Really? Every cave in the world floods?
4) What air quality issues?
5) Anything more then conjecture?
This list sounds like the typical I'm-13-years-old-and-know-how-to-use-a-computer-so-I-think-I-know-everything bullshit that normally fills /.
Quicy, IL? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:no, caves suck (Score:4, Informative)
Hmm... Then why are companies like Iron Mountain building out LARGE datacenters in caves?
(In most cases, former mines/quarries.)
1) Not caves large enough to drive vehicles in - many mines meet this criteria
2) Same answer as 1 for supplies, for 2 - in many cases they were already "built" for previous purposes (usually, getting valuable materials out of the ground)
3) Not if they're above the water table - many are. Iron Mountain's is, and apparently they're planning on using a nearby underground lake for cooling soon.
4) Not if built/designed correctly.
5) Iron Mountain and the like would prefer to disagree with you on that.
Re:no, caves suck (Score:3, Informative)
Obviously these are man made caves. Not naturally formed ones carved by water. Man made caves tend to follow grid patterns because they are planned with the thought in mind to rent the space out. They will leave massive walls and pillars spaced out every 50 feet or so.
Also, caves with heavy usage are not going to be friendly to bats, which don't like being disturbed by 18 wheelers driving past every 20 minutes.
Re:no, caves suck (Score:3, Informative)
They're manmade caves made from limestone mining.
Re:no, caves suck (Score:3, Informative)
Here are some specifics on the Underground Warehouses facilities in Quincy, IL:
1. It has its own traffic light
2. semi trucks haul loads in and out of the existing warehouse
3. not in 1993, 1997, or 2008 did the underground warehouses flood, although Illinois Route 57 was closed getting to them from one direction requiring a detour.
4. Many of the employees park their cars inside the caverns, trucks run in and out, materials are still mined in parts of the complex, and the break room where employees eat is built inside. It's dusty, but the ventilation is good.
5. There are temperature controlled sections in the warehouses already, including a huge frozen food handling area. The whole room is below freezing, workers, palette storage, inspection conveyors, and all. The room is the size of a major-chain pharmacy like CVS. If it wasn't for equipment, you could play soccer in the frozen section, and on a regulation-sized field.
Back in the day, I worked a few weeks in the frozen foods section as a temp. These places are massive. You can work all day in one chamber and never hear what's going on in the others.