Dec. 31, 2002 -- Bankruptcies and scandals scorched many reputations in the data center industry in 2002. Yet in the final month of the year, data center service providers provided a dramatic demonstration of the value of "zero downtime" for their business customers.
Intense December storms on both coasts caused widespread power outages, affecting thousands of businesses in Sacramento, Calif. and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.
Data centers in those areas reported that their operations remained online during lengthy periods without grid power, with several providers refueling generators to continue service.
The data centers served as an oasis of availability Raleigh-area customers during the ice storm on Dec. 4-5, which left more than 1 million North Carolina residents without power.
It was a busy time for Inflow Inc., which even installed a new customer on the spot after they showed up with their equipment.
"At one point, we had 50 people in our facility," says Chris Turco, general manager for Inflow in Raleigh. "One of our customers, a large business in Raleigh, sent their CFO and CEO to the Inflow facility to use one of the offices. There was also a Director of IT from another company, not even one of our customers, using an adjacent office."
Other Raleigh-area data centers also remained online throughout the storm, including Peak 10 Technology Gateways, Redundant Networks and Springboard Managed Hosting.
Data center service providers turned in a similar performance during a severe winter storm that hit Northern California from Dec. 14-16, with 60-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rain that left customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) without power.
The Herakles data center in Sacramento experienced three separate commercial power outages, including one lasting longer than 13 hours. Herakles' redundant systems performed as designed, providing its customers with uninterrupted services.
"The design of the Herakles data center coupled with our extensive preventative maintenance program makes our data center truly a tried-and-true mission critical, world class facility, " stated Lou Kirchner President & CEO of Herakles LLC.
The same was true at RagingWire Telecommunications, which like Herakles has provided 100 percent uptime since its facility opened its doors.
"Though utility power service was interrupted to RagingWire's data center for just over 3 hours, our backup generators automatically engaged and provided critical power without any disruption to any systems," said Yatish Mishra, president and CTO of RagingWire. "At no point was RagingWire in danger of losing power to our clients' systems."
That continuity proved invaluable to Internet-centric businesses during both storms, according to executives at Bandwidth.com, which set up shop in Springboard's Cary, NC data center during the ice storm.
“The staff at Springboard went above and beyond by providing our staff with emergency space needed to serve our clients without interruption,” said David Morken, president at Durham-based Bandwidth.com.
One of the lengthiest tests of continuity was weathered by the Peak 10's Raleigh data center, which lost grid power at 11:30 pm Dec. 4 and ran on generator power for more than 42 hours before electricity was restored at 5:30 PM on Dec. 6.
"The power is always on at Peak 10," explains Pat O'Brien, Vice President and General Manager for Peak 10's Charlotte, NC Data Center. "In fact, once a week, we simulate a power failure and run all facilities off of our diesel generators to ensure that our power systems will continue to operate seamlessly."
Even in a year of sensational headlines, that dedication to sound but mundane preparation will be long remembered by the customers whose web sites and IT operations stayed up and running during the crises.
Just ask Bandwidth.com's Morken, who said his provider had earned his "undying loyalty" with its performance. "Without Springboard, we would have been devastated,” he said.