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.

For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.