The Data Center at the South Pole

What’s it like to operate a data center at the South Pole? The Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory maintains a small data center in Antarctica, where it harvests neutrinos for scientific research. The dense ice at the South Pole makes the neutrinos easier to detect and collect. But it’s not a favorable environment for maintaining a data center. At OSCON, software consultant John Jacobsen discussed the Ice Cube project, operating a data warehouse in a remote location that’s inaccessible for months at a time, and the challenges of operating a 150 server data center at the southernmost place on earth. One irony: A warm day at the South Pole is 20 below zero, and the Ice Cube data center still faces cooling problems. NOTE: may load slowly, also currently featured on Slashdot. This video runs about 9 minutes, 45 seconds.

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About Rich Miller

Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.