IBM’s 200 mainframes in one of its test facilities “survived” a 4.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred today about 100 miles from the Poughkeepsie, NY, site.
IBM engineer Pasquale “PJ” Catalano posted on X about the incident: “Am happy to report that all 200 mainframes in Poughkeepsie, NY have successfully passed this FREE earthquake test! Whitehouse Station, New Jersey is about 100 miles SW of our test facility.”
IBM’s mainframe general manager Ross Mauri followed Catalano’s tweet with a message of his own: “We haven’t felt an earthquake around Poughkeepsie in some time … but as PJ says all of our running 200+ mainframes made it through unscathed! (in case you didn’t know we actually simulate a magnitude 7 earthquake as a standard test procedure for mainframes).”
The 4.8 magnitude earthquake rumbled through the northeastern United States at 10:23 a.m. on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey. It sent tremors from Philadelphia to Boston and jolted buildings in Manhattan and throughout the five boroughs, the New York Times reported.
Mainframes are engineered to withstand environmental events, including earthquakes. IBM and others have said the Big Iron can endure even an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.
Mainframe ruggedness can vary from model to model, but experts say the boxes are typically built with strong chassis that can deal with shock and vibration. There are also seismic isolation systems that can be utilized around the big boxes to ensure as much protection as possible.
In 2015, the IBM user group SHARE posted a story about a model z13 earthquake being banged around in the earthquake simulator at the University of Nevada at Reno. A video of another earthquake test is available here.
The mainframe celebrates its 60th birthday on April 7, which was the day in 1964 that IBM rolled out the System/360, which is generally considered the first modern mainframe.
It has come a long way in ensuing years. The most current versions of the mainframe support IBM’s AI portfolio to help customers securely deploy AI applications co-located with z/OS applications and data. Additional modern features include container extensions for Red Hat and Linux applications that better support hybrid cloud applications on the Big Iron.