Disaster As An Opportunity
Internap courts Houston businesses affected by flood

June 12, 2001 -- As flood waters begin to recede in downtown Houston in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison, at least one Internet service provider sees a business opportunity.
Internap Network Services today announced a "relief package" for Houston businesses that lost their Internet connectivity due to water damage at data centers in the city's hard-hit central business district. Internap's Houston service point was among the providers that stayed online during the epic flooding.
At least 20 people died as Allison dumped roughly three feet of rain on the city, flooding freeways and swamping 20,000 homes. Property damage from the storm was estimated at $1 billion.
The flooding, which crested four feet above 100-year-flood levels, overwhelmed backup generators at eight area hospitals and caused widespread outages in the Pulse network of automatic cash machines.
According to Internap, the flooding also caused service outages at some area data centers and telephone central offices, affecting both business and residential Internet connectivity.
Statistics compiled by the Internet Traffic Report show a significant drop in North American Internet performance beginning Saturday (June 9) as the Houston-area flooding accelerated, with slower response time and higher packet loss for the traffic that was getting through.
"Many Houston businesses have lost Internet connectivity due to the flood damage in their data centers, and this is one small way in which Internap can help get these businesses back in operation," said Tony Naughtin, Chief Executive Officer for Internap Network Services.
"While major Internet backbones lost connectivity in the Houston flooding, the redundant nature of Internap's Overlay Network and our intelligent routing technology allowed Internap to maintain service despite the storm around us," Naughtin added.
AT&T and Southwestern Bell experienced problems with switch sites during the flooding. But according to media reports, Internap was not alone in staying online, as a WiredZone data center in the CBD also remained dry and operating.
Internap said that it was offering 45 days of free 10 megabit Ethernet connectivity and collocation space in its Houston Internet Connectivity Center at 1301 Fannin Street to business customers switching from other providers.
Founded in 1996 in Seattle, Internap provides route management technology designed to offer Internet connectivity that is faster and more reliable than conventional Internet service.