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Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

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Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#21

Post by siculars »

eurleif wrote: post #10
mikescar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The building is being evacuated.

I wonder what the chances are that the water will go down, and they will be able to supply fuel to the pumps, before power is actually lost.

Zero. Their location got flooded with a 12 foot storm surge. I doubt the police are letting anyone near that area. I'm up on 96th and Park. We've had flooding and power outages along the river inland to 2nd ave up here as well. Also, there is practically no way in or out of the island of Manhattan now. All bridges and tunnels are closed except for _possibly_ the Lincoln tunnel.

Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#23

Post by rossjudson »

Here's the part I don't understand. This was a record 13 foot storm surge. Is it true that, had the pumps been located above the storm surge, service would have continued uninterrupted? It sounds like everything else in their data center is just fine.

This makes it seem like there was a serious design flaw. These pumps were a critical part of the system, but were located in a vulnerable area.

Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#24

Post by aes256 »

rossjudson wrote: post #23

Here's the part I don't understand. This was a record 13 foot storm surge. Is it true that, had the pumps been located above the storm surge, service would have continued uninterrupted? It sounds like everything else in their data center is just fine. This makes it seem like there was a serious design flaw. These pumps were a critical part of the system, but were located in a vulnerable area.

I'm guessing a complete evacuation of the building would have been required regardless, which makes things a little trickier.

Would they be able — or would it be advisable — to leave the fuel pumping, generators running and all operations unaffected without any staff on site?

Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#26

Post by veemjeem »

lucb1e wrote: post #20

It's interesting to see how a storm can singlehandedly cut out some major websites and cause millions to go without power. I think it shows how fragile this tech world really is, and how little we should rely on it in case of a major disaster.

At least with a storm, it's somewhat predictable so one can take action before it hits the datacenter. Nobody was able to predict the outage at Amazon's datacenter which took out large sites like Airbnb & Reddit almost instantly.

Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#27

Post by achille »

lucb1e wrote: post #20

It's interesting to see how a storm can singlehandedly cut out some major websites and cause millions to go without power. I think it shows how fragile this tech world really is, and how little we should rely on it in case of a major disaster.

Don't underestimate "a storm". A hurricane releases about 1.3 x 10^17 joules/day [1] of raw kinetic energy (wind), and that's not including rain and flooding. That's equivalent to 31 megatons per day. The most powerful US nuclear weapons today are about 25 megatons.

[1] - http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/D7.html

Re: Internap evacuates LGA datacenter

#29

Post by greyboy »

patrickgzill wrote: post #14
mikescar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The building is being evacuated.

So why didn't they do it earlier? That was my point. Of course you have to keep your people safe, but this shows poor planning.

How long would some 55-gallon drums full of fuel have helped, anyway? Most cars can easily run through 55 gallons of fuel in a matter of hours (There well may have been poor planning at some point, but these things happen so infrequently there must be an allowance for this-is-a-disaster that cannot easily be worked around.

Another question is for the customers: are they running all their services from a single datacenter? Sounds like it shows poor planning.

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