One of the advantages of living in the MidWest is that we have the Ozark Mountains. While many people enjoy all the outdoor capabilities there are, others find a business in these caves.
For years folks have used caves for offsite storage of documents, tapes and files. The currect use of caves is for IT disaster recovery sites.
I had the privilege of visiting one of these sites that a customer uses. The particular site is in Branson. All visitors have to be escorted onsite by someone who is a customer of the facility. The cave hosts three million square feet in storage. There are two generators with plans to build a sub-station. Several large companies use this cave for IT hosting and several known companies use it for off-site storage. To keep the dust down, the shale walls have been concreted over. Gas powered devices are not allowed past the front door, electric vehicles are the chosen mode of transportation. Large pillars support the cave roof. Moisture is limited to the front of the cave where the front was blasted away to provide doors. Unlike another cave site nearby that had many shale layers that housed moisture drip pan throughout hte cave. There are so many other features of this cave it is amazing.
I was really curious of what it was like inside. I knew it would be cool temperature wise, but I was curious if it was claustrophobic inside – it wasn’t. All in all I was very impressed.
Caves aren’t just for cavemen anymore.
