Data center owners are getting creative in their move to build more energy-efficient facilities that meet users' needs. This push for efficiency has led to some innovative designs over the years. From facilities that sit atop bodies of water to centers tucked away in the mountains, these data centers were not just built for storage — they were designed to be seen.

Nautilus' Waterborne Data Center

Location: Pleasanton, California

Tenant: N/A

SF: 30K

Nautilus Data Technologies built one of the first-ever waterborne data centers in the world. By using water cooling technology (that is still patent pending) the facility consumes no water, and instead recycles natural water from the sea or lake. As a result it operates on far less money than traditional land-based facilities. The floating data center also reduces power usage by 30%, decreases air pollution and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.

RagingWire's CA3 Data Center

Location: Sacramento, California

Tenants: Groupon, MobiTV and Polycom

SF: 1.5M

RagingWire Data Center's new facility in Sacramento was developed with future tours in mind. CA3, as it is called, includes large windows and walkways throughout the property that allow visitors to see the inner workings of its infrastructure — much like Superman's X-ray vision allows him to see through buildings and walls. Bright orange, blue, green and purple lighting, wall color and furniture add another element to the design, creating a sense of place for visitors.

RagingWire specializes in large-footprint, high-density, hybrid cloud deployments. The company is a subsidiary of global data center platform Nexcenter, which has 140 locations in 19 countries.

Cavern Technologies Data Center

Company Name: Cavern Technologies

Location: Lenexa, Kansas

Tenant: 110 tenants from startups to Fortune 1000 firms, including healthcare, financial, legal and technology firms

SF: 115k SF

Cavern Technologies is a provider in the development, leasing and operation of build-to-suit wholesale data centers outside Kansas City. It is the "only true underground hosting facility in the region" with fully disaster-proof data center space, according to company officials. It houses all of its equipment 125 feet under ground in an engineered facility at a temperature of 68 degrees – completely weatherproof and completely protected from natural disasters. The company also offers private data suites with flexible options.

Quantum Park

Location: Ashburn, Virginia

Tenants: Verizon Wireless

SF: 1.9M

This former Verizon Wireless-owned campus in Ashborne, Virginia, was sold to American Real Estate Partners and Davidson Kempner Capital Management in 2015 for $212.5M. Revered as hallowed ground in the telecommunications world, this campus was among the first high-speed data networks and spans hundreds of acres. Previously owned by farmers, the 125.8-acre campus consists of 1.9M SF of data center space and 12 buildings. It is now known as Quantum Park.

Co-owner American Real Estate Partners has a total of four data center land sites, which can accommodate 1M SF of data center construction. The company is in the market to sell two of the four land sites, which can handle nearly 550k SF. The above rendering is what is being proposed for a site in Ashburn, Virginia.