Old Norwegians Mines may become Computer Centre

Crown Prince Haakon and Industry Minister Trond Giske (photo) continued their visit to the U.S. with a rather unique proposal to U.S. companies in Silicon Valley – a computer center located inside a Norwegian mine.

Cloud computing is not limited by location, allowing companies to place their servers anywhere they want. This opens up for bids to American companies that are looking for large, cool spaces to store their servers, without the real estate prices of Silicon Valley.

"This could be a new business venture for Norway," Giske, Minster of Trade and Industry, told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. "We have quite a lot of space inside the mountains that may be suitable, we have good lines of communication with the rest of the world, and the energy source for these mines is 100 percent pure hydropower."

A data center for mass storage is one of the largest global investment areas in IT, and Norway will have to face fierce competition. Lefdal Mine, which is located in the county of Sogn and Fjordane on the West Coast of Norway, is the most likely choice.

Already, the Government and other key business leaders have done a pre-project to study the potential of a computer center in the mine. An agreement is in place with IBM to make it one of the leading data centres in Europe, and hopefully more companies will follow.

In spite of the competition, Mayor Sid Espinosa in Silicon Valley is optimistic about the project: "You have good arguments and a solid idea of why Norway is the best place for companies to invest in, so I am confident you will succeed," he told NRK.

(NRK)

Written by Julie Ryland

Wednesday, 26 October 2011 06:47