Just in case another hurricane hits Ohio…no, really, Ohio’s been hit before.

Currently the East Coast is picking up the pieces from Hurricane Irene and in the preparations leading to landfall we heard about many areas of New York City and up and down the coast evacuating and data centers waiting for the strong winds and storm surges (http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/08/26/ny-data-centers-prep-for-hurricane-storm-surge/). Even Con Edison had warned that it was prepared to pre-emptively shut off power in low-lying parts of NYC, including some electrical utility substations along the waterline of Lower Manhattan.

Although “Ohio” and “hurricane” seldom coexist in the same thought, remember that back in 2008 Hurricane Ike (which, by the way, was our nation’s third-costliest hurricane ever) made more than just its presence felt in the Buckeye State.  By the time Ike hit Ohio, it was still throwing around 75 mph winds, or sustained winds equivalent to a Category One hurricane. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike)

For those who did not live through Ike, it took our state more or less by surprise and left over 350,000 customers in Central Ohio alone without power, many for days on end, and overall forced Ohio to declare a state of emergency. Now, due to the diligent and extensive design and preparations that go into a purpose-built telecom facility like DataCenter.BZ (which in addition to our carrier-neutral data center built to Tier IV standards also houses data center operations for multiple local telecom carriers), our facilities were completely unaffected, and we have many stories about the IT folks and corporate executives who showed up throughout those days and nights (including many non-customers!) seeking help with keeping their communications and IT operations going.

In the event another potentially devastating storm decides to try to take on Ohio, DataCenter.BZ remains prepared and, as they say, it’s all in the preparation. The data center is built to Miami Dade-hurricane standards, with a double, independent standing-seam roof system, reinforced concrete walls, California earthquake-rated floors, walls and ceilings, and so on. Now, if either of the independent utility grid feeds serving the complex are affected, multiple 2-MW generators are on-line and with the addition of Alternate Feeds Utility Service (like a large hospital), every data center power panel has a minimum of 4 input power feeds and DataCenter.BZ does not employ ATS but rather a more sophisticated (and expensive!) Russelectric bus design.

Regarding flood threats, DataCenter.BZ (along with AT&T, Sprint and other key telecom assets serving central Ohio) is located at the geographic highpoint of Franklin County, and further the facility’s raised data center floors are 24 inches higher than the rest of the facility and more than four feet above parking lot catch basins.

Yes, Ohio remains one of the safest and most secure choices to locate mission-critical data center operations, but that doesn’t mean the state is always untouchable. Hurricanes and earthquakes can still hit, and that is why DataCenter.BZ has taken so many precautions to protect our customers’ operations from power/connectivity downtime.