Inside Iron Mountain’s Room 48

Underground “nuke proof” data bunkers have been used in commercial storage for decades, but in recent years have emerged as a growing niche in the data center ecosystem. Perhaps no company reflects that transition as well as Iron Mountain, a traditional leader in document storage that is now focusing on building its digital storage business. The flagship facility in the company’s push into the data center sector is a huge underground facility in western Pennsylvania. That’s where Iron Mountain has developed an energy-efficient data center known as Room 48, which combines the natural cooling of the former limestone mine with recent innovations in data center design. Here’s an illustrated guide to Iron Mountain’s Energy-Efficient Bunker.