Data storage demand is expected to quadruple by 2017, and the need for strong, safe facilities has pushed colocation firms to seek out specialized underground storage areas across the country.
Underground data storage is not new—old mines have been leased for years to the U.S. government and various Fortune 500 companies have also used the method for disaster recovery purposes. Now, colocation firms, which set up speculative space to companies looking to outsource their IT storage, are opening new hosting centers below ground. The caverns offer natural, meters-thick stone wall protection, consistent temperatures and prime security.
Jim Masterson, CEO of Des Moines, Iowa-based LightEdge Solutions, says there is usually at least one or two problems to deal with when either retrofitting a facility built for other uses into underground storage or building from scratch.
“With retrofitting, there are usually significant limitations in most cases, such as not being built to handle the fiber or power infrastructure. Or the roof height is not enough for cooling, or there’s no equipment yard…basically retrofitting is our least desirable method,” he says. “With building your own, which we’ve done, there are challenges from an expansion standpoint. Unless you overbuild, you have to keep planning for more footprint, or another facility.”
Masterson’s firm is working with Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development to install a new colocation data center at Hunt’s Subtropolis Technology Center, a 1,100-acre former limestone mine in Kansas City, Mo. Hunt already leases of millions of squeare feet to companies such as General Motors, Ford, Hallmark and the U.S. Postal Service. This is the company’s first data center attempt underground. LightEdge will move into a 20,000 sq. ft. space by spring 2014, and will ultimately occupy 60,000 sq. ft.
Masterson says his firm already has agreements to host carriers such as AT&T, Surewest, TW Telecom, Time Warner, Unite and Windstream. The company plans to provide network connectivity up to 10 gigabits per second. Masterson says the underground facility will provide benefits that are just not achievable with above-ground construction.
“The flexibility aspect is amazing, we can expand into new space within 90 days,” he says. “Also, Subtropolis is laid out in grid fashion, we don’t have to work around weird-angled wall space. The best aspect, of course, is how secure the structure is against weather or instability.”
Other underground facilities across the country have been reaching out to start commercial data hosting. Iron Mountain Inc., one of the most well-known data storage firms, has been leasing underground space to the U.S. government for years, and this year decided to open its underground facility in Boyers, Pa. for colocation. The former limestone mine is positioned 220 feet below ground, with ambient temperatures in the mid-50s and geothermal cooling. Marriott already leases 12,500 sq. ft. there for disaster recovery purposes.
Ora Reynolds, president of Hunt Midwest, says the newest growth trend is companies outsourcing data needs. Underground storage facilities in the Midwest, such as Subtropolis, Cavern Technologies, the Mountain Complex, SpringNet Underground, InfoBunker and U.S. Secure Hosting provide a cheap, safe storage option for coast-based firms.
“It used to be that people were server-huggers, needing to be close to the data center, but with fiber connection we can host these needs in the center of the country,” Reynolds says. “Whereas power on the East Coast can be 12 to 15 cents per kilowatt, in Kansas City you can get charges of less than 5 cents per kilowatt.”
The only other concern today is trying to snare incentives to help snare more firms to the Midwest, Reynolds says. The state and the county are offering LightEdge tax exemptions and abatements, but this benefit is the exception, not the rule, for data center properties. “While our jobs pay about twice what an ordinary industrial facility worker gets, there’s just not a lot of job production for data, that’s one of the hurdles to growing the industry today,” Reynolds says.
