How CoreSite Survived Sandy 60
Nerval's Lobster writes "When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, the combination of high winds, rain, and storm surges wreaked havoc on homes and businesses alike. With a data center on the Avenue of the Americas, CoreSite Realty escaped the worst the storm had to offer. But was it coincidence or careful planning? Slashdot sat down for an interview with Billie Haggard, CoreSite's senior vice president of data centers. He's responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, facilities staffing and uptime, reliability and energy efficiency of CoreSite's data centers. He described what it took to weather the worst weather to hit New York City in decades."
Re:Excellent! (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not about whether they could do it, but how smug he comes across in patting himself on the back for having an excess of fuel while those around do without. Because his internet hosting is by far the most important thing in the world. And shelters would take people who still have a house, yet have no means of heating it.
I was struck by his smugness at having prepaid for fuel, but then a few paragraphs later he pointed out that the carrier that prepaid for a 4 hour generator delivery had their generator confiscated by the police. He was lucky they didn't need to refuel the confiscated generator by confiscating his fuel.
In a big disaster, fuel contracts mean very little - if the government decides that a hospital or police station (or the mayor's mistress's apartment building) needs the fuel more than you do, they will take it.
Re:First off, (Score:4, Insightful)
First rule : don't build a data center at a location that gets week-long power outages.
Building down in that area is pretty much for one reason only: length of the fiber run to wall street. In a world of nanosecond trading, every mile you are away from Wall Street means that much more of an advantage someone else has over you. Is it extremely risky/expensive to build in these locations? Hell yes. Is it likely financially worth doing so? Hell yes. There are costs to doing business, this is just one you have to factor in and see if the overall risk/reward equation works out (I'm betting it does for these folks)
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
"So eight hours in, we already had fuel trucks running. And every 24 hours, we had fuel, even though we didn’t need to." I'm sure the people in shelters and waiting in line for 6 hours to fill their own generators so they can keep their family warm at night are happy for you.
It is not the responsibility of CoreSite to provide fuel for everyone in New York City. Billie Haggard did his job well, and he deserves kudos for that.
Perhaps those people should have heeded the mandatory evacuation warnings and moved further away from the coast--100 miles inland would have made a world of difference to them, come Monday morning. Your house being without power doesn't matter if you're two hours away from it. There's no good reason for putting your children at risk by staying put when a hurricane is coming at you, and you had several days warning.