Nazi U-boat facility to data center…

Today, world-renowned companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft provide cloud services. Demand, of course, increases year by year. A project to recycle Nazi U-boat air defense facilities as a data center used for such cloud services is underway.

The initiative is being implemented by Interxion, which provides a platform for European digital media services and cloud service network operators. Intercion is building a data center in Marseille, France in accordance with the demand for the cloud business, and has also decided to build a second data center and a third data center with an area of 4,300 m2. Among them, the third data center is not to be built from scratch, but to reuse air defense facilities for Nazi U-boats in Marseille.

This site was built by the Nazis in the port of Marseille adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea during World War II, but it was not completed and abandoned in the middle. The interior, which has been left under construction for over 75 years, is full of graffiti and dust.

The reason why such U-boat air defense facilities are being recycled as data centers is because of their location. Marseille is the largest port city in the Mediterranean, and has 13 submarine cables connecting not only Europe, but also the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The delay time between the already-built data centers and Cairo, Dubai and Saudi Arabia is also within 6 milliseconds. In addition, the area around the U-boat air defense facility is a state-owned land and is protected by the French national military police, so there is no worry about security.

Meanwhile, there may be a problem that the sea breeze close to the port and particulates discharged from ships may cause corrosion. Therefore, it is said that special filters will be installed in exhaust pipes such as data center generators and air conditioners. Completion is within the year 2019, and Intercion is also releasing an image of the facility’s completion.

Intercion explains that France is part of the EU, so the data center is legally and financially secure, and Marseille is a low-latency location with 46 countries. It is also suitable for markets such as the Middle East, and it is said that it has already signed a contract with a company that delivers digital media such as Netflix to the Arab world. It is said that 400 million people are downloading videos through the Marseille data center. Related information can be found here .

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