Show Us Your Racks

Soldato
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
5,000
www.thebunker.net

Speaking of datacentres in Berkshire, there's www.dedipower.com in Reading and www.bluesquaredata.com in Maidenhead where we have a private suite. All 3 have vastly, vastly more equipment than Spoon's pathetic display ;).


THE BUNKER ULTRA SECURE

Directions

The Bunker’s HQ is based at:

The Bunker
Ash Radar Station
Marshborough Road
Sandwich
Kent
CT13 0PL
United Kingdom


LOL

Yeah, that'll be marketing BS then. I've worked in secure DC's and you won't be finding directions for them on their website. Not that they have websites either. ;)
 
Associate
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
1,603
Location
Kent/London
I think there is more to being secure than not knowing the location, I mean we all know where MI6 is but doubt very much you could get inside there.

That said, I have been to a few EDS sites, one near Sunderland and one in Milan. The Milan site was actually a few hours outside the city and in the middle of nowhere. It was then like a prison with high walls, guard dogs and armed security guards. They definatley don't publish the adresses of those sites and I think I had to sign a specific NDA.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
5,000
I think there is more to being secure than not knowing the location, I mean we all know where MI6 is but doubt very much you could get inside there.

That said, I have been to a few EDS sites, one near Sunderland and one in Milan. The Milan site was actually a few hours outside the city and in the middle of nowhere. It was then like a prison with high walls, guard dogs and armed security guards. They definatley don't publish the adresses of those sites and I think I had to sign a specific NDA.

Yes, there is more to it, but not knowing it exists is important. Place i work at now isn't secure as such, but despite being owned by a household name does not have a single sign or notice that tells a passer by who owns the building. Its just a building with a door in the front on a side street in a city.

That said, we did have the Israeli military being shown around the other week, although we weren't even told that until it had already happened lol.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
1,603
Location
Kent/London
Most data centres don't advertise the building itself. I spend a lot of time in Telehouse and they only have very small signs on the gate. Many centres are just completely anonymous warehouse type buildings in industrial parks or some like in Harbour Exchange Square are in big shiny office blocks. Actually its only easy to spot them using Google Earth as they have far more hardcore cooling chillers and generator kit than normal buildings, often on the roofs.
I remember the first time going to Equinix in Slough, took 40 minutes of driving up the same road to find it, eventually called their security.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
30 Jun 2005
Posts
9,515
Location
London Town!
Most data centres don't advertise the building itself. I spend a lot of time in Telehouse and they only have very small signs on the gate. Many centres are just completely anonymous warehouse type buildings in industrial parks or some like in Harbour Exchange Square are in big shiny office blocks. Actually its only easy to spot them using Google Earth as they have far more hardcore cooling chillers and generator kit than normal buildings, often on the roofs.
I remember the first time going to Equinix in Slough, took 40 minutes of driving up the same road to find it, eventually called their security.

Level3's Goswell Road facility blends in pretty well (despite being bloody huge and in the centre of London). Telehouse is among the more obvious in London, Global switch on the other hand you'd never know unless you'd been there it was a datacenter.

As for secure places, not publishing directions on the website is fairly inconsequential, anybody who wants to know where it is could likely find out, security by obscurity doesn't work and shouldn't reassure anyone with half a brain.
 
Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,422
Location
2nd City - Manchester.
Most data centres don't advertise the building itself. I spend a lot of time in Telehouse and they only have very small signs on the gate. Many centres are just completely anonymous warehouse type buildings in industrial parks or some like in Harbour Exchange Square are in big shiny office blocks. Actually its only easy to spot them using Google Earth as they have far more hardcore cooling chillers and generator kit than normal buildings, often on the roofs.
I remember the first time going to Equinix in Slough, took 40 minutes of driving up the same road to find it, eventually called their security.

Indeed - I spent a while working at one of the UK's top banks DC's - their name was not visible anywhere on the buildings - the only sign was something the size of a car number plate next to the turn off from the road with the 5-letter name (their cryptic name) for the facility.

There were 5-6 football pitch sized underground computer rooms - and I don't know how many other rooms for comms and the like.

The telly-tubby-land like cooling funnels (20-30 foot high and 10ft across) round the place sort of gave the game away that something was up to those in the know.
 
Soldato
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
5,000
Level3's Goswell Road facility blends in pretty well (despite being bloody huge and in the centre of London). Telehouse is among the more obvious in London, Global switch on the other hand you'd never know unless you'd been there it was a datacenter.

As for secure places, not publishing directions on the website is fairly inconsequential, anybody who wants to know where it is could likely find out, security by obscurity doesn't work and shouldn't reassure anyone with half a brain.

secret_nuclear_bunker-thumb.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2008
Posts
3,974
Location
By the sea, West Sussex
I look after about 2800 racks across 3 datacentres on the campus.
Everything from old VAX and mainframes, through to the new HP C7000 blade enclosures and EMC storage going in almost every week now.

Sadly no photos - security would have a heart attack!
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,171
Just stuck some new racks in a new building we're moving into, was fun getting the 47u racks in.

the only sign was something the size of a car number plate next to the turn off from the road with the 5-letter name (their cryptic name) for the facility.

Chap I do some work with occasionally was telling me about the Chanel building in Croydon I think having a different name on the building, can't remember what he said it was now.
 
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J.B

J.B

Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2006
Posts
5,924
10 users at the moment probably be 15 in a couple of months.
Its small but I'm proud of our setup. When I started all we had was a Belkin router. So I feel in 6 months we've come quite far and there is always the potential to grow further.

The director is quite switched on and understands the need for spending on IT so I imagine in a year or so we will have something different.

I do enjoy working here and managing our small environment as it's a learning curve for me.
 
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