Saturday, July 28, 2007

San Fran Goes Dark, Cripples IT

Probably know that San Fran went dark a few days ago for two hours, affecting 30 to 50 thousand customers. Granted, lack of a live wire is bad for people, but it's also bad for data; the blackout took many big internet sites offline, including 365 Main, Craigslist, Technorati, Yelp, AdBrite, TypePad, and LiveJournal. Imagine the outrage; not only was I prevented from blogging, but my non-stop feed to the free section of Craigslist wasn't working!

Power outrages are increasingly common; Pakistan and India have daily cuts, and the whole island of Jamaica regularly loses power. What is most unusual is that strom shortages are appearing in the developed world as well. For example, Barcelona went dark (350,000 without power), and the St. Louis Arch went dead on Sunday, trapping dozens of tourists.


Power outages are caused by various factors including load, aging infrastructure, and chaotic mishap, and cities are fraught with all of these items. Bottom line for IT is that urban areas are no place for your data to grow up in; get it out. The Land of Fire and Ice might be a good try; barring that, at least run your operation efficiently, ala Google.::SFGate

2 comments:

KRiSTOPHER DUKES said...

I had no idea blackouts were growing more common.

Maybe I should start using candles.

Sexy.

Anyway, how do I get in touch with you? I want to invite you to be a part of a green project I'm helping put together.

KRiSTOPHER DUKES said...

Forgot to ask you to hit me at kristopher (at) thisnext.com