- RUVDS expands hosting to the coldest, most remote regions on Earth
- Tests promise high-speed data access for extreme remote environments
- Antarctica mission tests data center limits and innovation
Russian hosting company RUVDS has announced plans to deliver a server to one of the most isolated places on Earth: the South Pole.
Building on its previous experiment in the Arctic, the company aims to explore the feasibility of providing uninterrupted access to high-speed data from the remote, icy landscape of Antarctica.
According to the company's schedule, this ambitious undertaking will take place next year and seeks to demonstrate that a reliable server infrastructure can operate even in the harshest conditions.
The most challenging climates in the world
This venture follows RUVDS' previous success at the Barneo Ice Camp, a temporary station on an ice floe near the North Pole. In early 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 connected to the RUVDS satellite. It is designed to provide Internet access and data hosting capabilities in the Arctic. While the server was supposed to run for a month, an emergency evacuation due to a crack in the ice interrupted the experiment after just a week.
Learning from its experience in the Arctic, RUVDS is now preparing the Antarctic host with advanced insulation and backup power systems.
The equipment will include uninterruptible power supply systems to counteract power failures and ensure continuous operations. The goal of RUVDS is to create an “Antarctic data center” capable of providing high-speed data access to users, regardless of extreme temperatures.
The server connection will depend on a high-speed communication channel, which is expected to be delivered along with the hardware. RUVDS has not yet specified the exact technologies it will employ for this channel, but its Arctic experiment took advantage of its own satellite, the StratoSat TK-1, which was launched in June 2023 in collaboration with the Russian aerospace company Statonautica.
This satellite, a low Earth orbit picosatellite, is a key part of RUVDS's Arctic and Antarctic operations. Despite memory damage during launch, StratoSat TK-1 remains operational and transmits a simple HTML page from space.
The company has a couple of options for server delivery. Aircraft and transport ships that can withstand the challenges of reaching the South Pole will participate.
If successful, the server installation could pave the way for future data centers in remote polar regions, contributing to scientific research and potentially opening new avenues of communication in inaccessible parts of the world.
“We already have a successful experience with the test launch of a server at the North Pole; it was a kind of first approach to testing. And Antarctica, as a region with much more complex logistics and conditions, allows us to continue research at 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 carrying out a kind of beta test of commercial use of the server,” Tsaplin continued. .
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