Dauvea to build data centre in Sardina Roman mine

Cagliari-based IT firm Dauvea has announced it is building a new data centre in a Roman mine on the isle of Sant’Antioco in Sardinia. According to the Sardinia Post, the project, called “Digital Metalla” or Digital Mine was first announced in January, and the company is due to break ground on the facility later this month. 

While no specifications have been released, Dauvea confirmed the facility will be an “energy-efficient, green data centre.” Salvatore Pulvirenti, Founder and Managing Director at Dauvea, said: “In Oslo, Norway, they obtained a data centre from an ammunition depot. We have no other news of such visionary projects. But this work for us means first of all giving new life to territories from a sustainable perspective, creating jobs, giving solutions to new trends in the digital world, innovating for real, by doing. This is our mission.”

Founded in 2017, Dauvea provides a number of IT, cybersecurity. and Cloud services. Pulvirenti has previously served as CIO at Italian telco Tiscali as well as holding positions at Telecom Italia and Sardinian research organisation CRS4.

Where does the name “Metalla” come from?

Metalla is the name of an archaeological site located in the ancient Phoenician city of Sulci (or Sulcis), to the north of the small island southwest of Sardinia's main island. The area has been mined for lead, silver, zinc, coal, and other minerals for thousands of years, and mines in the area only began to close in the 1990s. The area has previously been submitted for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Other unusual data centre locations 

Verne Global’s Iceland data centre: As well as a Roman mine in Italy, another interesting data centre location is Iceland, where Verne Global built a 45-acre facility on the former Nato airbase of Keflavik. The cold temperatures of the country were ideal for the facility and the mid-Atlantic location allows for low millisecond connections between London and New York. 

Bahnhof Stockholm data centre: While Stockholm may not sound that unusual, the location for Bahnhof’s data centre is because it was built 100 feet below the city in a former nuclear bunker and is surrounded by a waterfall, tropical plants, a 600-gallon fish tank, and granite walls.