Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Europe Data Center Provider The Bunker Opens New High Specification Data Hall in Kent


The Bunker News – KENT, UK – The Bunker, provider of ultra secure Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Colocation, and Outsourced IT from within Europe’s most secure data centres, is pleased to announce that it has successfully opened a significant new high specification data hall in Kent.
The former military operations room at its South East facility becomes the latest high specification data hall to open in Europe’s most secure data centre. The new data hall has been fitted out with state of the art power and cooling infrastructure, providing up to 32 amps of UPS power per rack and N+1 fully redundant power and air conditioning.


The facility also benefits from hot and cold aisle separation, dual power feeds, generator back-up and over 150 ISP connections available.
The new data hall in Kent is part of The Bunker’s continuing investment programme, to meet the growing demand for high specification, ultra secure data facilities for fully managed and colocation customers.
Simon Neal, Director of Data Centre Services at The Bunker, said: “I’m delighted with the new data floor at our Kent facility. The ongoing investment allows us to expand our business and provide security conscious organisations with the reassurance of knowing that their hosting and managed services needs are being met in an ultra secure, high specification environment.”
Growing awareness of limited power availability and high prices in London is driving up demand for high power density, out-of-London locations. The Bunker is an obvious choice for organisations that require secure, high specification, managed services and colocation hosting facilities.
“The first customer has already moved in and we anticipate a rapid take-up of space and the opening of phase 2 in the near future.” continued Neal.

Bunker 2


State of the art and military grade
 The Bunker is expanding its Kent operations. The Bunker2 maintains the highest standards set by The Bunker by blending state of the art M & E infrastructure with military grade security. The new data centre facility provides an alternative highly secure, low risk Internet hub outside London servicing clients who wish to establish systems in the UK, but who also require access to the World Wide Web without entering the high risk London zones.

The Bunker2 offers 12,000m2 Tier 3 data floor within the existing defences of The Bunker’s facility, along with 2,000m2 of office and support accommodation, staffed 24/7/365 by security and technical personnel. The development will be of a modular low profile design, cut into the landscape with a grass roof. Each module of 2,200m2 blends into the surrounding environment with minimum visual impact.

London is the second largest Internet Exchange in the world. Unfortunately London is also one of the highest risk cities in the world.



The Bunker2 is a Carrier Neutral Data Centre, situated at a strategically important location on the cross roads of the main Internet fibre routes leaving the UK towards Europe, Asia and the USA. For our clients this affords peace of mind that traffic can be routed via the traditional channels across London, however in the event of a catastrophe, disabling the main Internet hubs in the London Docklands and the City, traffic can still route to any location in the world via the main Internet exchanges in Europe.
The next step for a trusted brand

The Bunker2 facility
The Bunker2 is owned and developed by The Bunker Secure Hosting Limited. The Bunker delivers secure Managed Hosting and Data Centre solutions from within Europe’s most secure Data Centre and has done so since 1994. Our technical leaders are recognised experts in security and cryptography, renowned for their work on Apache-SSL. Our management team includes Data Centre experts with over 10 years experience. The Bunker is ISO 27001 accredited, are recognized experts in Open Source technology, we are Microsoft Gold partners and practice Prince 2 and ITIL standards.

About The Bunker
The Bunker delivers Ultra Secure Managed Hosting, Cloud Computing, Colocation, and Outsourced IT from within Europe’s most secure data centres.

Our data centres, which are outside the M25 yet within easy reach of London, are military-grade nuclear bunkers purpose built to house the UK’s air defence systems. We run 24x7x365 – our NOC monitors systems both nationally and internationally and is staffed around the clock by system and network engineers and security staff. The Bunker is ISO 27001 and PCI DSS accredited and follows ITILv3 best practice and PRINCE2 project management standards.

Our clients are financial services organisations, technology companies, healthcare, government and other regulated businesses that value a premium service built around security.
For more information visit www.thebunker.net
 info@thebunker.net
Posted by Gary E. Weller at 1/11/2012 01:35:00 PM
Labels: , , , , , ,

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousAugust 10, 2012 at 2:04 PM

    Great article. How do you get all these images and info?
    Here are a few article suggestions to embed via repost.us I thought you might use on your blog as well:

    6 green data centers that could survive a zombie apocalypse
    http://www.repost.us/article-preview/#!hash=c843b82775b46832e233235e3193fd6d

    300 million year old limestone cave to cool data
    http://www.repost.us/article-preview/#!hash=c9387b41ac987aea9140be1c8a9e164a

    or just search yourself at repost.us.

    Happy reposting!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Underground Secure Data Center Operations

Technology based companies are building new data centers in old mines, caves, and bunkers to host computer equipment below the Earth's surface.

Underground Secure Data Center Operations have a upward trend.

Operations launched in inactive gypsum mines, caves, old abandoned coal mines, abandoned solid limestone mines, positioned deep below the bedrock mines, abandoned hydrogen bomb nuclear bunkers, bunkers deep underground and secure from disasters, both natural and man-made.

The facility have advantages over traditional data centers, such as increased security, lower cost, scalability and ideal environmental conditions. There economic model works, despite the proliferation of data center providers, thanks largely to the natural qualities inherent in the Underground Data Centers.

With 10,000, to to over a 1,000,000 square feet available, there is lots of space to be subdivided to accommodate the growth needs of clients. In addition, the Underground Data Centers has an unlimited supply of naturally cool, 50-degree air, providing the ideal temperature and humidity for computer equipment with minimal HVAC cost.

They are the most secure data centers in the world and unparalleled in terms of square footage, scalability and environmental control.

Yet, while the physical and cost benefits of being underground make them attractive, they have to also invested heavily in high-speed connectivity and redundant power and fiber systems to ensure there operations are not just secure, but also state-of-the-art.

There initially focused on providing disaster recovery solutions, and backup co-location services.

Clients lease space for their own servers, while other provides secure facilities, power and bandwidth. They offers redundant power sources and multiple high-speed Internet connections through OC connected to SONET ring linked to outside connectivity providers through redundant fiber cables.

Underground Data Centers company augments there core services to include disaster recovery solutions, call centers, NOC, wireless connectivity and more.

Strategic partnering with international, and national information technology company, enable them to offer technology solutions ranging from system design and implementation to the sale of software and equipment.

The natural qualities of the Underground Data Centers allow them to offer the best of both worlds premier services and security at highly competitive rates.

Underground Data Centers were established starting in 1990's but really came into there own after September 11 attacks in 2001 when there founders realized the former mines, and bunker offered optimal conditions for a data center. The mines, and bunkers offered superior environmental conditions for electronic equipment, almost invulnerable security and they located near power grids.

Adam Couture, a Mass.-based analyst for Gartner Inc. said Underground Data Centers could find a niche serving businesses that want to reduce vulnerability to any future attacks. Some Underground Data Centers fact sheet said that the Underground Data Center would protect the data center from a cruise missile explosion or plane crash.

Every company after September 11 attacks in 2001 are all going back and re-evaluating their business-continuity plans, This doesn't say everybody's changing them, but everybody's going back and revisiting them in the wake of what happened and the Underground Data Center may be just that.

Comparison chart: Underground data centers

Five facilities compared
Name InfoBunker, LLC The Bunker Montgomery Westland Cavern Technologies Iron Mountain The Underground
Location Des Moines, Iowa* Dover, UK Montgomery, Tex. Lenexa, Kan. Butler County, Penn.*
In business since 2006 1999 2007 2007 Opened by National Storage in 1954. Acquired by Iron Mountain 1998.
Security /access control Biometric; keypad; pan, tilt and zoom cameras; door event and camera logging CCTV, dogs, guards, fence Gated, with access control card, biometrics and a 24x7 security guard Security guard, biometric scan, smart card access and motion detection alarms 24-hour armed guards, visitor escorts, magnetometer, x-ray scanner, closed-circuit television, badge access and other physical and electronic measures for securing the mine's perimeter and vaults
Distance underground (feet) 50 100 60 125 220
Ceiling height in data center space (feet) 16 12 to 50 10 16 to 18 15 (10 feet from raised floor to dropped ceiling)
Original use Military communications bunker Royal Air Force military bunker Private bunker designed to survive a nuclear attack. Complex built in 1982 by Louis Kung (Nephew of Madam Chang Kai Shek) as a residence and headquarters for his oil company, including a secret, 40,000 square foot nuclear fallout shelter. The office building uses bulletproof glass on the first floor and reception area and 3-inch concrete walls with fold-down steel gun ports to protect the bunker 60 feet below. Limestone mine originally developed by an asphalt company that used the materials in road pavement Limestone mine
Total data center space (square feet) 34,000 50,000 28,000 plus 90,000 of office space in a hardened, above-ground building. 40,000 60,000
Total space in facility 65,000 60,000 28,000 3 million 145 acres developed; 1,000 acres total
Data center clients include Insurance company, telephone company, teaching hospital, financial services, e-commerce, security
monitoring/surveillance, veterinary, county government		 Banking, mission critical Web applications, online trading NASA/T-Systems, Aker Solutions, Continental Airlines, Houston Chronicle, Express Jet Healthcare, insurance, universities, technology, manufacturing, professional services Marriott International Inc., Iron Mountain, three U.S. government agencies
Number of hosted primary or backup data centers 2 50+ 13 26 5
Services offered Leased data center space, disaster recovery space, wholesale bandwidth Fully managed platforms, partly managed platforms, co-location Disaster recovery/business continuity, co-location and managed services Data center space leasing, design, construction and management Data center leasing, design, construction and maintenance services
Distance from nearest large city Des Moines, about 45 miles* Canterbury, 10 miles; London, 60 miles Houston, 40 miles Kansas City, 15 miles Pittsburgh, 55 miles
Location of cooling system, includng cooling towers Underground Underground Above and below ground. All cooling towers above ground in secure facility. Air cooled systems located underground. Cooling towers located outside
 Chillers located above ground to take advantage of "free cooling." Pumps located underground.
Location of generators and fuel tanks Underground Above ground and below ground Two below ground, four above ground. All fuel tanks buried topside. Underground Underground
*Declined to cite exact location/disatance for security reasons.