Parisian Nuclear Shelter Converted Into Data Centre

A nuclear fallout shelter near the city centre of Paris has been converted into a data centre by French hosting provider Online.net.

The data centre, which is situated 26 metres underneath a quarry, was originally built in 1937 and acted as a shelter for up to 90 people. In 1964, at the height of the Cold War, the shelter was converted into a nuclear fallout hideout capable of holding up to 300 people.

Data centre conversion

Confidential until 1991, Online.net bought the building from the French government in 2012, and decided to convert it into a data centre. Online.net will use the data centre to store data from customers who use its C14 data archiving and long-term backup service.

The conversion from a leaky, dilapidated shelter into a modern data centre capable of storing crucial data was no easy undertaking, explain Online.net in this blog post outlining the build.

“A short period after the building acquisition, we realised the challenge and the work required to transform the site in a high end data centre,” said Online.net.

“The project challenges were just crazy and required our teams to be very creative and clever.”

The team had to entirely excavate the rooms, install a 25 metre shaft to fit a service elevator, install slabs capable of holding tonnes of racks, and deal with water issues caused by the surrounding limestone.

“Starting in October 2016, you will be able to store all your critical C14 data in our fallout shelter, located 26 metres underground in Paris, France,” said the company.

“The Nuclear Fallout Shelter is totally unique by its localisation, in the Paris city centre, its singularity, hostility, and its complexity to access. The challenge we engaged into to perform an important and complicated transformation of the building and its shelter is just gigantic.”

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