Protecting your data center during power-outage season

03.01.2007
If anyone knows how to protect against power outages caused by extreme weather, it would be Jeff Biggs. The vice president of operations and engineering for Peak 10 Inc., a fast-growing Charlotte, N.C.-based data center operator, Biggs has taken many steps to harden Peak 10's collocation facilities in Florida against the state's annual threat of hurricanes.

Like making sure Peak 10's Jacksonville data center taps into the city's underground power lines in two places, in case one substation or line goes down. Or buying a massive 1,500 kilowatt backup diesel generator for Peak 10's Tampa Bay data center, along with emergency refueling contracts with two separate suppliers in case of an extended outage.

But Biggs admits that recent storm-related power outages in Denver, Seattle and St. Louis, all of which left parts of those cities dark for a week or longer, would have tested and perhaps overwhelmed Peak 10's precautions.

"An outage that long, oh my God, it would catch even my fuel suppliers off guard," he said.

The continued growth of the Internet, combined with cheaper PC-based technologies, has led the number of servers worldwide to double since 2000, according to market research company IDC.

Much attention has been paid on how to cut the spiraling costs of powering and cooling these servers. But less thought has been devoted on how to better protect data centers from power outages, now that incidents of turbulent weather caused by global climate change appear to be on the rise.