Nestling in the leafy outskirts of a quiet east Kent village, technology boffins are keeping watch on some of the most important data and sensitive information in the country.
The village of Ash is an unlikely setting for The Bunker, an ultra-secure data bank which is flourishing despite the gloomy economic outlook.
Bosses at the site are set to take on dozens more staff in the coming months, with more positions becoming available as their expansion plans take shape.
The Bunker, at the Ash radar station, is an ultra-secure data bank with the tightest of security.
Visitors are under escort at all times and CCTV cameras watch your every move as you journey down into the heart of the 50ft-deep complex, past thick blast-proof doors and down echoing corridors with a distinct Cold War feel.
In temperature-controlled rooms, row upon row of LED-lit servers click and whirr with activity, like a scene from a Hollywood movie.
As the internet grows and plays an increasingly important role in society, so does the need for all that information to be hosted and stored somewhere.
Chief executive Peregrine Newton said: “We run 24/7, 365 days a year.
“We have two large power supplies, meaning we have a back-up if one goes down and we have another that will pick up, and also UPS [uninterrupted powers supplies] should those fail.”
The Bunker holds data about credit and payment-card transactions, which make internet shopping and online banking possible.
Mr Newton said: “Our clients are securely connected to the internet via us.
“Half of our clients are financial institutions, but we also have ones such as The Drink Shop, the large online off-licence, and others using the services we offer.
“We have about 150 clients in all and most of the major financial institutions have some of their systems here.
“For them, it ticks all the security boxes and while we love what we do here, we take it very, very seriously.”
Planning permission for a 12,000-square-metre building, called The Bunker 2, has been granted and will lead to a doubling of the workforce on site.
The expansion plans mean that jobs such as IT roles should become available in the near future, as well as posts for security staff and maintenance people.
Many security-conscious companies choose to have their information held here because London would be an obvious target for terrorists.
In the event of a nuclear or biological attack, or a disaster of some kind, staff can maintain systems vital to the country’s operational well-being.
Thanet South MP Dr Steve Ladyman visited The Bunker last week to take a look around. He said:
“This place is a truly world-class operation. It was a unique opportunity to build something like this here and it’s triumphed.
“You don’t find many facilities that are secure from nuclear and biological attack, or indeed many places in the world which can match this, and it’s great that they are also expanding.
“I think it’s a facility we should be proud of. If companies like The Bunker can bring high-speed internet connectivity into the area, then it will benefit businesses and individuals.”
The bunker was originally designed to protect the nation by controlling air battles over south-east England and later to track possible missile strikes and enemy aircraft incursion into British airspace.
It boasts 3.5-metre concrete walls that could withstand a 22-kilotonne thermonuclear blast.
People would have been able to live for 90 days underground in the event of a strike.
However, as the Cold War petered out, the site took on a new role and was used by the Civil Aviation Authority for civil radar.
The RAF eventually took control again, but the last year of full operation was 1995.
The Bunker as it is today was formed in 2004, when two entrepreneurs turned it into a facility to hold information for clients keen to have an out-of-city centre to hold data.
POSTED: 18/11/2009 10:00:00
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