Nine floors underground, Oracle's Israel data centre can 'withstand a rocket, a missile or even a car bomb' Oracle has opened a data centre in Israel which it claims is able to withstand rocket attacks to ensure continued resilience in the troubled state. The first of two planned public cloud facilities in the country is about 50 metres below one of Jerusalem's technology parks. Nine floors underground, the server farm is designed …
Apparently the underground carpark is above it!
Quote: "Constructed by Bynet Data Communications, the underground facility is a 14,000 sqm (460,000 sq ft) bunker locate below five parking levels and a 17-story building in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim tech hub. The data center extends over four floors at a depth of 50 meters (160 feet) below ground level."
> Did they check for an underground car park next door?
Worked at a "medium sized" mobile telco where one of their data centres was on the ground floor of their staff multistorey carpark building (not "in" the carpark but still didn't seem like a good idea to me).
Worked at another large mobile telco where their main data centre was the equivalent of about 4 or 5 storeys underneath the city with a nondescription entrance. There was actually an underground carpark relatively near to it though.
At another large mobile telco remember looking out the window of one of their DC buildings and noticed an elevated bullet train track passed only a couple of metres away from the outside wall of the DC - close enough to wonder if a derailment could hit the DC.
Also worked at a very important IT processor for the worldwide travel industry where their DC was allegedly designed to survive a plane crash. It was divided into 3 (or was it 4) logical DCs each with their own generators, mains power, data links, etc - effectively each was a separate building very closely adjacent to the others.
So based on observations of the likes of the above I'm sceptical in general of DCs that claim they are "hardened" / "secured".
"If there are on site generators, they'll have exhausts no? What happens if one drops something that goes bang down there?"
Amazingly enough, people who build secure facilities tend to think of stuff like that and do something to prevent it. Being in Israel means the whole site will be properly secure (because Israel doesn't mess around when it comes to preventing terrorism), and individual elements will also have security.
Flatbed trailer, 60 metric tons of ANFO, ground zero "close enough". Though the servers will continue to run, they will be as good as dead to the rest of the world. A few hours of being considered destroyed and the HA state will obsolete most of what they still keep.
As for archives, I would not put my archive in a place which just tempeted fate this boldly.
Depends where the groundwater is. 50m is probably below groundwater level, but not necessarily (though the article refers to Jerusalem, so I suspect quite shallow groundwater there)
Also, depends on what the soil/rock is - is it low permeability material? If the surrounding soil/rock is sufficiently low, you might have nothing more than a little dampness to deal with, as the inflow evaporates as quickly as water passes through the soil. On the other hand, if you are in sands and gravels, you are effectively in a lake.
Then your waterproofing strategy come in.(various ways of waterproofing a basement, giving varying effectiveness based on intended use). You might aim to build a 'water proof' (very low permeability) structure to keep all the water out, or have an internal liner wall with a drained (and pumped) cavity between inner and outer walls.
So, good question (have an upvote), but also a typical issue for the construction industry to deal with.
Jerusalem is about 750 metres above sea level. The 'mountain aquifer's' water table is at about 300-450m ASL.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251413167_Overview_of_the_Mountain_Aquifer_A_Shared_Israeli-Palestinian_Resource
So you can dig a very long way without hitting the water table, I think.
It's only about 20 miles from the nearest part of the Dead Sea, which is in - at the bottom of, obvs - the Jordan Rift Valley. The sides of the valley are steep - there's something like a 1000m height difference.
It's a shame about all the fighting and feuding going on there, because a geographically very interesting part of the world.
@Paul Herberts
Caravan back in fashion? I was unaware they were ever IN fashion. Arrived about 2 years after the "revolution".
For what it is worth, assuming this lot are the same Caravan, this is their latest l.p.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1T9aFY4JZlTqUW0oDAvOIb?si=QPhXQXA_QxumDtJqdTcG5A
Any attempt by the Iranian Proxies in the area to get any kind of aerial capability will be removed from the surface of the Earth tout-suite. Iran are currently too far away plus Syria for all their fun and games know from painful experience what will happen if they step too far out of line.
Egypt, Jordan and firmly in the "my enemies-enemy is my friend" territory at the moment plus the first two also have long and painful memories of the result of their last unfriendly engagement with the Israeli military.
The ability of an explosive projectile to damage the data centre will depend on (amongst other things) how deep the projectile penetrates before going bang, and how big the bang is.
How deep the projectile penetrates (You at the back of the room, stop sniggering...) depends on the nature of the soil, or rock, or other cover (e.g. reinforced concrete slabs), shape of projectile, and impact energy (roughly linked to drop height if it's a bomb).
The effectiveness of the projectile (whether the bang damages the buried structure) then depends on the power and nature of the shock wave formed when the projectile explodes, and nature and thickness of intervening soil et al (dissimilar layers appear to be beneficial in retarding the shock wave, for example).. Also, the nature/strength of the structure, of course.
As a very rough guide, WW2 unexploded bombs are generally felt to reach a maximum bomb penetration depth of up to ~21m, though most are found at much shallower depths (typically <10m depth).
The threat here is presumably the sort of truck-mounted multi-rockets ('Katyushas') used by Hamas et al. These seem generally to have quite limited penetration ability, and, in the grand scheme of things, don't go bang particularly loudly. Multiple missiles would just pound the surface to dust, and then recirculate the dust on the surface.
On the other hand, the left-pondian air force is currently testing an air-dropped 5000lbs bunker buster: that would I suspect lead to a loss of service at the data centre..
Neutron bombs are just low-yield nuclear weapons with a higher neutron burst. Their main use was against armour formations. Using one against a hardened target would still really vaporise it the same way as a conventional nuclear bomb although the lethal radiation range would be a bit further.
Cool. And my house can withstand pea-shooter attacks.
Personally, I wouldn't want any of my important data stored there ... nor would I want to live in the neighborhood. Oracle has essentially stuck a great big "kick me here!" sticker on it's own ass (or arse, if you're not of a left-pondian nature).
I'm sure the place is as secure as they are suggesting but this sort of talk just cries out for some sort of "Hold my beer" scenario.
What about the 'data' cables/fibres/lines in to the place?
I assume they, too, are well away from said rockets, bombs and the like.
Not sure how deep down they may be buried and all but they are bound to be close to the surface at some stage, aren't they?
Genuine saboteurs would know, I'm sure.
Either way, stay safe, folks. The world isn't a nice place at times and no need to ask for trouble.
finally a good discussion here... ..... GBH [9 posts • joined 21 Apr 2011]
Patience is a virtue, GBH, which oft is wheeled out to excuse and disguise one whenever having nothing of great value to do or say.
Some here would disagree with you and posit that there are many times when great revelations are floated out into market places for virtual spaces to further direct and tender to/mentor and monitor. And all available signs are that such developments especially particularly and peculiarly in AID*and VML** circles/sectors/vectors are future free of and overwhelming of human interference and/or hindrance.
AID* ........Advanced IntelAIgent Design
VML** .....Virtual Machine Learning
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