- RUVDS expands hosting to Earth’s coldest, remote areas
- Tests promise high-speed data access for highly remote environments
- Antarctica mission tests data center limits and innovation
Russian hosting firm RUVDS has announced plans to deliver a server to one of the most isolated locations on Earth: the South Pole.
Building on its previous Arctic experiment, the company aims to explore the feasibility of providing high-speed, uninterrupted data access from the remote, cold landscape of Antarctica.
According to the company’s schedule, this ambitious venture will take place next year and it seeks to prove reliable server infrastructure that can operate even in the harshest conditions.
The world’s most challenging climate
This venture follows RUVDS’s previous success at the Barnio Ice Camp, a temporary station on the ice near the North Pole. Earlier in 2024, the company delivered a “data center in a box” to Barneo via airdrop from an Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft.
The server is equipped with weather-resistant materials and is connected to RUVDS’ satellite. It is designed to provide Internet access and data hosting capabilities in the Arctic. While the server was intended to operate for a month, an emergency evacuation due to cracks in the ice cut the experiment short after only one week.
Learning from its Arctic experience, RUVDS is now outfitting Antarctic servers with advanced insulation and backup power systems.
equipment will be included uninterruptible power supplies To combat power failures and ensure continuous operation. The goal of RUVDS is to create an “Antarctic Data Center” capable of providing high-speed data access to users regardless of extreme temperatures.
Connection to the server will rely on a high-speed communications channel, which is expected to be distributed with the hardware. RUVDS has not yet specified what exact technologies it will use for this channel, but its Arctic experiment took advantage of its own satellite, Stratosat TK-1, which is scheduled to be launched in June 2023 by Russian aerospace firm Statonautica. Was launched in collaboration.
This satellite, a low Earth orbit pico-satellite, is a vital part of RUVDS’s Arctic and Antarctic operations. Despite memory loss during launch, Stratosat TK-1 remains operational, broadcasting a simple HTML page from space.
The company has a few options for delivery of servers. This will include transport aircraft and ships that can meet the challenges of reaching the South Pole.
If successful, the server installation could pave the way for future data centers in remote polar regions, contribute to scientific research and potentially open new avenues of communication in hard-to-reach parts of the world.
“We already have the successful experience of launching a server at the North Pole – it was a kind of first approach for testing. And Antarctica, as a region with much more complex logistics and conditions, allows us to take research to a new level. “, said Nikita Tsaplin, CEO of VDS server hosting provider RUVDS.
“As part of the mission, the possibility of establishing satellite communications, including high-speed channels, will be studied, and I do not rule out that we will conduct a kind of beta testing of the commercial use of the server,” Tsaplin added. Said. ,
through DCD
