The Pionen White Mountains underground data center has fog, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and ….

……  was also designed to withstand a near hit from a Soviet nuclear weapon.

German Diesel Submarine Engines

It  is not a joke, this is a serious and real data center, a newly opened high-security site run by Banhof, one of Sweden’s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below Stockholm, sealed off from the world by steel vault doors 16 inches thick.

Waterfalls in Reception

Conference Room above the Raised Floor Area

Fog Lights or Grotto?

The Power Center

Facts about the data center

• Originally a nuclear bunker: The data center is housed in what was originally a military bunker and nuclear shelter during the Cold War era. The facility still has the code name from its military days: Pionen White Mountains.
• Located in central Stockholm below 30 meters (almost 100 ft) of bedrock: The facility has 1110 sqm (11950 sq ft) of space and is located below 30 meters of solid bedrock (granite) right inside the city.
• Fully redesigned in 2007-2008: Pionen was completely redesigned in 2007-2008 to become the data center that it is today. More than 4,000 cubic meters (141,300 cubic ft) of solid rock was blasted away to make more room.
• Can withstand a hydrogen bomb: The bunker was designed to be able to withstand a near hit by a hydrogen bomb.
• Houses the Network Operations Center for one of Sweden’s largest ISPs: The bunker houses the NOC for all of Bahnhof’s operations. They have five data centers in Sweden, Pionen being the largest. The facility also acts as a co-location hosting center, so you can actually put your own servers here.
• German submarine engines for backup power: Backup power is handled by two Maybach MTU diesel engines producing 1.5 Megawatt of power. The engines were originally designed for submarines, and just for fun the people at Pionen have also installed the warning system (sound horns) from the original German submarine.
• 1.5 megawatt of cooling for the servers: Cooling is handled by Baltimore Aircoil fans producing a cooling effect of 1.5 megawatt, enough for several hundred rack-mounted units.
• Triple redundancy Internet backbone access: The network has full redundancy with both fiber optics and extra copper lines with three different physical ways into the mountain. Pionen is one the best-connected places in northern Europe.
• Work environment with simulated daylight and greenhouses: For a pleasant working environment the data center has simulated daylight, greenhouses, waterfalls and a huge 2600-liter salt water fish tank.
• Staff: 15 employees, only senior technical staff, work full time in Pionen.

Breaking the mold and focusing on humans

I couldn’t resist asking the people behind the Pionen data center what made them design such an insanely cool and unusual environment deep inside the bedrock of Stockholm.

Jon Karlung, CEO at Bahnhof explains their motivations.

“Rather than just concentrating on technical hardware we decided to put humans in focus,” he said. “Of course, the security, power, cooling, network, etc, are all top notch, but the people designing data centers often (always!) forget about the humans that are supposed to work with the stuff.”

View of the Data Center from Operations

Control Gear

We suspected that the unique location itself must have been a big inspiration, something which Karlung confirms.

“Since we got hold of this unique nuclear bunker in central Stockholm deep below the rock, we just couldn’t build it like a traditional – more boring – hosting center,” he said. “We wanted to make something different. The place itself needed something far out in design and science fiction was the natural source of inspiration in this case – plus of course some solid experience from having been a hosting provider for more than a decade.”

Operations Bridge with Optional Fog and SciFi Lighting