NSA To Build 20-Acre Data Center In Utah 226
Hugh Pickens writes "The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that the National Security Agency will be building a one million square foot data center at Utah's Camp Williams. The NSA's heavily automated computerized operations have for years been based at Fort Meade, Maryland, but the agency began looking to decentralize its efforts following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and accelerated their search after the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA — Baltimore Gas & Electric's biggest customer — had maxed out the local grid and could not bring online several supercomputers it needed to expand its operations. The agency got a taste of the potential for trouble January 24, 2000, when an information overload, rather than a power shortage, caused the NSA's first-ever network crash, taking the agency 3 1/2 days to resume operations. The new data center in Utah will require at least 65 megawatts of power — about the same amount used by every home in Salt Lake City — so a separate power substation will have to be built at Camp Williams to sustain that demand. 'They were looking at secure sites, where there could be a natural nexus between organizations and where space was available,' says Col. Scott Olson, the Utah National Guard's legislative liaison. NSA officials, who have a long-standing relationship with Utah based on the state Guard's unique linguist units, approached state officials about finding land in the state on which to build an additional data center. 'The stars just kind of came into alignment. We could provide them everything they need.'"
Re:But will it run Linux? (Score:2, Funny)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
The secret service builds a datacenter and announces that in mainstream media?
It will be a very large data center.
It will be important.
It will be secret.
And it will be located at Utah's Camp Williams.
That's very amicable to other secret services. Saves them some searching. :D
Well, now you know... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, now you know where your can find those emails you accidentally deleted or forgot to backup. Safely in the hands of god, err, the NSA.
Sixty five megawatts (Score:2, Funny)
65 megawatts of power -- about the same amount used by every home in Salt Lake City
Those must be some big houses. I wonder how much they all use in total!
Sounds like a new movie brewing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In fact, (Score:2, Funny)
Good idea!
Travelling collections?
I can't believe that the National Parks System hasn't already done this. They're all clustered around the east coast - we really need to get some here in the midwest.
Re:So... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
"Surveillance only tells us that they don't store the data on the rooftop"
(ok, it's from a rather lame Simpsons episode, but I'm sure some will get the reference)
Well that should cement Utah's status... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:American Money, American Land, American Calls (Score:3, Funny)
So, now we have an American agency, operating within America, and recording American telephone conversations without oversight of law.
And no manpower to do anything useful with it.
Re:Nice work, Senator Hatch. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sixty five megawatts (Score:3, Funny)
There's a Mormon joke there somewhere.
They have to store a year's supply of extra electricity in their basement.
How's that?
Re:Sixty five megawatts (Score:4, Funny)
A Catholic priest went into a barber shop for a haircut. When he was finished, the barber refused to take payment saying, "You are a man of the cloth... this is a free service that I offer to you." The Priest thanked the barber and went on his way. The next morning the barber found seven fishes and seven loaves of bread on his doorstep in gratitude from the priest.
The next week, a Jewish Rabbi went into the same shop for a cut. Again the barber refused payment saying, "You are a man of God... this is a free service that I offer to you." The next morning the barber found a fitting gift from the Rabbi.
The following week, two LDS Missionaries went into the shop for haircuts. Again, the barber refused payment saying, "You work in the service of God... this is a free service that I offer to you." The next morning the barber arrived to find 12 LDS Missionaries on his doorstep.
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Well yes, obviously it's a decoy. The NSA knows that we would immediately jump to the conclusion that this is a decoy, and start looking elsewhere. In fact, they're counting on it. They want us looking elsewhere so that they can install their top secret datacentre hardware in Utah.
Except... why make it so conspicuously obvious. They make a show about building this datacentre, so we would look elsewhere. We know that they want us to look anywhere but their decoy, so we look at the decoy. While we're busy looking at the decoy, they build elsewhere. Clever.
However, they've got to know that there's enough people to look at both the new datacentre and all the other sites. Something else is going on. They've got scurrying around like ants, looking for this "true" datacentre. We're focused on the ground. We're focused on the NSA. This isn't about NSA datacentres. This is about CIA satellites.
US Government Hypocrisy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:4, Funny)