Sun Partners in $400M Data Center in Japan

Sun Microsystems (JAVA) is part of an 11-company joint venture building an underground data center in Japan that will use groundwater for cooling and consume 50 percent less power than traditional facilities, according to a report from The Nikkei. The data center, which will be built 100 meters underground in a former mine, will cost about $409 million (45 billion yen).

The facility in central Japan's Chubu region will be the country's first underground data center. The first phase of development will feature enough space for 10,000 servers, with the opportunity to expand to hold 30,000 servers. Other firms involved in the project include a major Internet service provider, Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ), U.S. consulting firm BearingPoint Inc. (BE), and Japanese IT firms Itochu Techno-Solutions Corp. and NS Solutions Corp.