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California's Powerful Problems

Members of the ISP-Colo list discuss the state of webhosting in California. Dealing with blackouts is now a part of daily life—during the energy crisis, it's important to be prepared for the inevitable.

[January 23, 2001]

On the ISP-Colo list in January, BW inquired,

"Did any facilities go down because of the power outages in California over the past few days?"

A number of respondents contended that the blackouts had no effect on customers:

[DW observed] "During the rolling blackouts in California, two of our facilities were transferred to generator power. To my knowledge, there was no downtime for us or our customers."

[SD explained] "I have not heard of any major colocation or web hosting company losing customer loads during the rolling blackouts. Several companies did have blackouts affecting some of their offices or administrative functions, but not the data center portion of their operations. Many companies engaged in various conservation measures, including turning off lights, lowering/raising temperature controls, etc."

[CS added] "While I was touring a client around the facility, I noticed that our CPS units were running and that PG & E had dropped power to the facility. However, the customers experienced no spikes, variation or hiccups in their online presence. The power backup system is more important than where you are."

JB argued that this means clients should stay away from California:

"I would think if someone needed colocation services they would locate outside of California; they are always having power problems down there. When you know there will be power failures, why take the chance?"

DU noted a problem with that suggestion:

"The problem is, people like to be near their equipment, and most of them just happen to be in California or on the East Coast…"

[LJ agreed] "For hosting, being near your equipment doesn't matter. For colo, it does."

Others countered that proximity is irrelevant for colocation:

[JM offered] "Kinda defeats the purpose of colocation—to be near your equipment. I think it is more of a marketing ploy. 95% of our customers are located outside the US. It is very rare that we get a US customer or someone near us geographically."

[MM agreed] "Even for colocation, being near your equipment doesn't matter, except for peace of mind. There isn't anything that can't be done remotely or by an on-site support team-or by a third-party management team."

—End