There are always new (and exciting) challenges facing IT professionals, and there are always new (and intresting) ways to address these challenges. With land and construction costs always increasing, especially in the more densely populated areas, building new datacenters is becoming less and less cost-effective. However, it’s not always easy to retrofit an existing site to accomodate highly technical operations; with such stringent requirements for environmental conditions like humidity, dust, and temperature, it can be difficult to create the ideal environment for high-end hardware.

In an article from Computerworld, IT professionals showcase some of the innovative datacenter locations that have been adapted from churches, air force bases, and underground bunkers (I’m sure three-foot-thick reinforced concrete will become a standard in datacenters shortly). The Boston College datacenter that was moved into St. Clement’s chapel last year even features a stained-glass window depicting St. Isidore, a proposed patron saint of the Internet. With more companies needing these types of resources, IT pros will continue to be creative with their datacenters to take advantage of existing infrastructure.