Houston Data Centers Survive Epic Storm

Some of the data center operators in the Houston area have been proactive in addressing the impacts of Hurricane Harvey by offering updates about their facilities and services, and even promising to contribute to those impacted. Here’s a look at their comments and efforts on this front.

Digital Realty had promised to match employee donations to Hurricane Harvey relief. And its leader issued a statement expressing support for those affected by the storm and flooding and added that its Houston facilities continue to deliver service.

CEO A. William Stein said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Texas throughout this tragic event. We are relieved to report that our employees and their families in Houston are safe, and continuing to do whatever it takes to maintain uninterrupted service for the customers who rely on our Houston facility for mission-critical applications. We are proud of the resiliency of our data center designs as well as our operations teams on the ground.” 

Meanwhile, Data Foundry proactively reported that its Houston data centers remain up and running. CTO Edward Henigin on Tuesday offered a blog update.

“Both our Houston data centers continue to be staffed 24×7. We have not experienced any flooding concerns at either site, and both sites have had 100% uptime. Our facilities are stocked with food, water and cots,” said Henigin.

“Houston 2 is a purpose-built facility designed to withstand category 5 hurricane wind speeds. This site has not lost utility power, and we have not had to transition to our back-up generators…. Houston 1 is in West Houston. It is located inside the Marathon Oil Tower,” Henigin continued. “We have not lost power to our systems, and we have not had to transition to our back-up generator.”

Meanwhile, IBM has experienced flooding at a Houston data center, as an on-site worker reportedly shared images of water in the basement at its HOU04 location. That prompted Big Blue to tweet: “The #IBMCloud Data Center in Houston is fully operational & serving clients. Video of basement flooding does not depict the #datacentersite.”

While many of the other data center operators in Texas and Lousiana don’t mention the hurricane on their websites (not that I can locate anyway), reports indicate that those facilities remain up and running.

It’s also noteworthy to mention that service provider Verizon has pledged $10 million for Hurricane Harvey relief. And the service provider is taking a variety of other steps to help out folks in Texas and Louisiana who are impacted by the storm and related flooding. 


Edited by Erik Linask