Data Backup Digest

Canada isn’t known for its abundance of WWII-era battlefields, but there are some historic defenses that are still in place in various strategic locations. The majority of such defensive structures are bunkers, which were meant to provide defense from Axis bombing. Luckily, however, such firepower never reached North America. Nevertheless, these bunkers – most of which have been lightly used and are still in great structural condition, remain.

One company, known as Teslagistics, has proposed the idea of retrofitting these bunkers into 21st century data centers that are highly efficient and secure. Given the fact that these facilities include reinforced concrete walls that are 4-feet-thick and ceilings that are 2.5-feet thick, these data centers are effectively bomb-proof.

A proposal has already been made by Teslagistics regarding the use of several bunkers located within Argentia in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, which will add to the growing list of bunkers that have been renovated to accommodate large-scale data storage. The proposal was accepted by Argentia officials at the end of September 2015, and Teslagistics plans to break ground on the project in early 2016.

Louise Stanois, CEO with Teslagistics, spoke enthusiastically about the new data centers by saying: “We are excited to sign this lease agreement with Port of Argentia today for the John Whelan Building and Command Bunker and look forward to the phased grow out of our Argentia data centre operations to provide domestic and international clients with a highly secure and energy efficient option for their critical data and high performance computing needs.”

Harvey Brenton, CEO of Port of Argentia, shared the excitement. He was quoted as saying: “Port of Argentia is pleased to execute this facility lease and welcome Teslagistics to Argentia. The Port is delighted to see these current property assets as well as historic structures of the former naval base utilized to develop a new industry for our region with a significant job creation component.”

Teslagistics is no stranger to the idea of new and innovative data center design. In fact, the team with Teslagistics is familiar with advanced methods of submersion cooling, inert gas fire suppression systems and underground data storage.

Per their advanced submersion cooling methodology, their physical servers will be submerged in dielectric mineral oil known as ElectroSafe. A system that was originally designed by Green Revolution Cooling, this form of submersion cooling facilitates over 1,000 times more heat capacity per volume when compared to air cooling techniques of today. This equates to a level of power consumption that is as high as 20% less than that of known air cooling methods.

In addition to their new data centers, Teslagistics is also currently in the process of relocating their main headquarters from its current home in Toronto to McAndrew Air Force Base in Argentia. The move will help support ongoing data center renovation projects within the area.

To find out more information about the team at Teslagistics, including details on any of their services, contact information and access to the latest press releases, please visit their official website at www.teslagistics.com.