Data center solutions provider Tonaquint has announced that it is upgrading its recently acquired EdgeX facility in Oklahoma City to be designed for 100% uptime, including the ability to withstand winds of up to 310 mph (approximately 500 km/h), making it one of the most resilient data centers in the region.
Oklahoma saw 74 tornadoes in 2023 alone, most of which were rated EF-0 or EF-1, which is classified as “weak.” 95% of Tonaquint's data center is rated to withstand an F5 tornado (wind speeds greater than 200 mph) with structural and mechanical hardening.
The facility, located on a four-acre campus near Will Rogers World Airport, was previously a single-client environment but is being transformed into a multi-client environment. It will initially deploy a minimum of 2.5 MW of critical IT load, with possible expansion to up to 12 MW.
Can he survive a MOAB explosion?
“This state-of-the-art facility will be well prepared for new customer demands and the growing capacity requirements of AI workloads,” said Terry Morrison, Tonaquint COO and CTO. “These improvements further position this facility as one of the most resilient and forward-thinking data centers in the region.”
Tonaquint says this data center provides high-density capacity and geographic optionality for all customer workload types. It also features a renovated client reception area and meeting rooms, and can offer chilled water cooling for high-density workloads.
If you're wondering how the facility would perform in the face of a direct hit from a Massive Ordnance Aerial Blast (MOAB), also known as the “Mother of All Bombs,” which was a question someone asked me, it's very hard to say. .
The shock wave from a MOAB is the equivalent of an explosion caused by 18,000 pounds of TNT and creates a high-pressure wave that radiates outward, with concussive force, rather than creating sustained wind patterns like those associated with the tornadoes. However, the facility has a lot of internal protection inside, including armored steel doors, so it's very likely that much of it will emerge unscathed. Fortunately, it is unlikely that the data center will ever face such a test.
Tonaquint is accepting customer orders now and delivery will begin in April 2024. The Oklahoma City acquisition expands Tonaquint's existing platform in Boise, Idaho and St. George, Utah, offering cloud, colocation, backup, disaster recovery and network as -a- Service solutions for medium-sized organizations.
