Russian hosting provider RUVDS recently announced that it will deliver a server to the South Pole, where it will test the possibility of installing a high-speed communication channel alongside the server. The server will be insulated from the extreme cold through weather-resistant equipment. The presence of backup power supplies, as well as the provision of an uninterruptible and high-speed communication channel, will reportedly allow the hosting provider to provide access to the ‘Antarctic data center’ to any user.
"We already have a successful experience of test launching a server at the North Pole - this 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. 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 carry out a kind of beta test of commercial use of the server," emphasized Nikita Tsaplin, CEO of the VDS server hosting provider RUVDS.
Earlier this year; the company announced it would deliver a ‘data centre in a box’ to the Barneo Ice Camp via an airdrop from an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft. Barneo Ice Camp is a Swiss-owned and Swiss-operated drift station (a temporary or semi-permanent facility built on an ice floe) on the frozen Arctic Ocean near the North Pole catering to tourists flown in from Russia. It is open for around a month around April every year.
