Keeping data safe in a mountain

If every byte of information on the internet needs a physical location where it’s stored, one of the safest places to keep this data might be inside a Swiss mountain. (Carlo Pisani, swissinfo.ch)

Around 80 kilometres from Zurich it is one of the largest Swiss military bunkers ever built.

In 2011 the bunker was converted into a data centre that’s now run by the company Deltalis. Located close to one of Europe’s major internet backbones – the cables ruing under the motorway between Milan and Zurich – it benefits from fast response times over the internet, or low latency.

Given Switzerland’s reputation for stability and relatively restrictive laws on data secrecy (the Swiss authorities are only allowed to access data with a court order and the party concerned must be informed), Switzerland is one of the best places to safely store digital information.

The Cushman & Wakefield 2016 Data Centre Risk Index looks at factors such as natural disasters, political risk, coectivity, sustainability and energy security. Switzerland ranks as the third most attractive country for data storage.

Typically, customers of Deltalis are companies with a common focus on security such as email hosting services, cloud providers, financial institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Frank Harzheim, Deltalis’ CEO estimates that to date, half of their clients are foreign companies, and this is clearly an upwards trend.

Contact the author of this story on Twitter @carlopisani

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