This near indestructible data center is built to withstand winds of up to 500km/h with absolutely no downtime — but can it withstand a direct hit from MOAB?
Tonaquint’s upgraded data center is based in tornado alley
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Data center solutions providerTonaquinthas announced it is upgrading its recently acquired EdgeX facility in Oklahoma City to make it engineered for 100% uptime, including being capable of withstanding winds up to 310 mph (approximately 500 km/h), making it one of the region’s most resilient data centers.
Oklahoma saw 74 twisters in 2023 alone, the majority of which were rated either an EF-0 or an EF-1, which is classed as “weak”. 95% of the Tonaquint data center is rated to withstand an F5 tornado (wind speeds over 200mph) with structural and mechanical hardening.
The facility, situated on a four-acre campus near Will Rogers World Airport, was previously a single-client environment, but is being transformed into a multi-client one. It will initially deploy a minimum of 2.5 MW of critical IT load, with potential expansion up to 12 MW.
Can it survive a MOAB blast?
“This state-of-the-art facility will be well-prepared for the demands of new clients and the increasing capacity requirements of AI workloads,” said Terry Morrison, COO and CTO of Tonaquint. “These enhancements further position this facility as one of the region’s most future-forward and resilient data centers.”
Tonaquint says this data center provides high-density capacity and geographic optionality for all client workload types. It also features a refreshed client reception area and meeting rooms, and can deliver chilled water cooling for high-density workloads.
If you’re wondering how the facility would fare against a direct hit from a Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), also known as the “Mother of All Bombs” – which was a question someone asked me - it’s very hard to say.
The blast wave from a MOAB is the equivalent of an explosion caused by18,000lb of TNT and creates a high-pressure wave that radiates outward, with a concussive force, rather than the creation of sustained wind patterns like those associated with tornadoes. The facility does have a lot of internal protection inside though, including steel blast doors, so there’s a good chance much of it would come through unscathed. Thankfully, it’s unlikely the data center would ever face such a test.
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Tonaquint is accepting client orders now, with delivery starting 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 to mid-market organizations.
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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.
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