Modern data is so vital that it’s becoming the “new gold.” This article on The Conversation website examines how nuclear bunkers, abandoned mines, and mountain caverns are being reworked into underground data fortresses to protect our digital infrastructure. What prompted this shift is the growing fear of catastrophic data loss, whether through cyberattack, physical disaster, or system failure, pushing firms and governments to seek more secure storage solutions.
The author visits one such site under Kent, England—a Cold War-era bunker now functioning as a secure cloud facility. Its concrete walls, once built to resist nuclear threats, now serve as a shield for servers and storage systems. Beyond England, similar conversions exist worldwide: a Swedish defense shelter in Stockholm, a “Swiss Fort Knox” tucked inside the Alps, a mountain vault used by Norway’s national library, and Svalbard’s Arctic archive inside a coal mine. Even former Cold War bunkers in the United States and China are being repurposed.
These subterranean sites aren’t just for dramatic effect. They respond to real vulnerabilities in “cloud” infrastructure, which, despite being framed as ethereal and intangible, is rooted in concrete, electricity, cooling systems, cabling, and physical location. Servers generate heat and depend heavily on uninterrupted power, so any disruption can cascade into serious failures. Moreover, the energy footprint of the data industry is rising sharply, bringing scrutiny to its environmental and security risks.
The author frames these underground data centers as cultural expressions of fear; just as ancient societies buried their treasures to protect them, we now bury our digital treasures. What was once a focus on atomic apocalypse has shifted toward concerns about data apocalypse. In an era where a single breach or outage can cripple companies, nations are betting that the safest storage is deep below ground.