[LINK] ITnews: 'Damage from major data-centre power outage'

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> On 14/07/2011 2:57 PM, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>> It wasn't a power surge, just an outage. Those without an alternate power
>> supply failed. When servers crash, it doesn't hurt to bring the systems
>> back methodically.
> 
> It seems to have been an outage on a distribution feed to a UPS which 
> supplies various servers. The UPS then happened to fail, causing a surge 
> on the power line to the servers. Some servers didn't like the surge and 
> suffered damage.
> 
> The probability of all this happening is low, but not zero.
> 
>> I would expect alternate/backup power supplies are options on service
>> contracts.
>>
>> One could be cynical and suggest it is a way to get customers to upgrade.
>> Guess you have to do the risk analysis.
> 
> Risk analysis is only the start, you also have to do the planning for 
> if/when it happens.
> 

The risk analysis was from the customer's perspective - there is usually a 
price for a promise of higher reliability.

As to the provider of the services - there is similar risk analysis. But 
from the technical perspective, a testing and monitoring wouldn't go astray 
either. Though unfortunately, sometimes simple systems are just more reliable.

With regard to power failures, it is worth noting, that at the user end it 
is probably not as big and issue these days are so many people are using 
battery powered devices.

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202