Cavern Technologies is expanding its underground data center in Lenexa, Kansas by 40,000 square feet.

The three million square foot facility is housed 125ft underground and has a potential capacity of 50MW.

Expansion or excavation?

“This expansion will enable Cavern to accommodate significant growth for new clients and existing customers. As large companies address enterprise cloud strategy and plan to accelerate growth, Cavern is well-positioned to support their colocation and hybrid IT needs,” said John Clune, CEO of Cavern Technologies.

Cavern offers a variety of data center products, ranging from half rack to build-to-suit suites. The build-to-suit offering is for suites larger than 5,000 sq ft.

The US data services provider claims to have provided its customers with 100 percent uptime for the last 12 years.

A major benefit of building a data center underground is that the rock surrounding the server units gives added resiliency from extreme weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes.

As mines are naturally colder for being underground there is also a benefit for operating costs as cooling energy consumption is reduced, saving money for customers.

Another example is Bluebird Network, which operates an underground facility in the Midwest. The Springfield, Missouri data center is located 85ft underground in a disused limestone mine.

Elsewhere, some data center providers have chosen to use dormant nuclear bunkers to house their data centers. These facilities are built to survive the very worst that man or nature can throw at them, so they make a perfect environment for a high security data center.