Where NOT to keep your servers according to Mother

I read this article through digg:

http://digg.com/hardware/Where_NOT_to_keep_your_servers_according_to_Mother_Nature

Does anybody think Dreamhost being in LA is a risk?

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no, according to a Dreamhost employee a while back in IRC, DH opted for the data center option that can convert into a nuclear submarine. That way when California falls into the ocean they'll still be good. (I think that's what was said, or at least something close to that)



--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

It might be worth ensuring all employees can swim.

Wholly

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It might be worth ensuring all employees can swim.

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...or place a bulk order for some water-wings.

Mark

NEW!!! Every server in the DreamHost datacenters now feature 10 floaties with an additional floating device each week!*

Edited by MaddGIJoe on 01/20/07 08:20 PM (server time).

wow great eh !

I can see the promotions now:

"Forget the pipes! We roam the WHOLE OCEAN!"

Wholly

really gonna learn how to swim now :P

This would certainly make the waterskiing parties less expensive...



Wholly

I wonder if prices will rise when Dreamhost have to activate the whale sonar backbone links to the mainland.

So, ok, theoretically, where should we move the servers? Of course, if we were to incur the humongous cost of moving our entire datacenter elsewhere, unfortunately we'd probably have to pass on the cost to the customer. Plus don't forget the downtime that would be involved (between physically moving the servers and overcoming the unknown variables in an entirely new datacenter and network).

We've already discussed Las Vegas. While the middle of the desert would be great and just about entirely free of Act of God problems, most of us would probably end up gambling more than taking care of problem servers.

The truth is, no matter where you live, there is a chance that something will happen and either power will be cut, or the datacenter destroyed. My native Midwest looks great until you figure in the yearly tornadoes. The southern Gulf states are way the heck out. Darn near the rest of the country got wiped out by winter storms this year, cutting power for a long time, including temperate Seattle. Heck, we had a hot summer this year and most of you remember the result of the LA grid saying "OI! Enough already!" Stuff happens no matter where you are.

There's a couple of pros to being in LA. The worst natural disaster that can happen here is an earthquake, and the really huge destructive ones are rare, versus, say, the Midwest when every year there's a tornado season. Secondly, the newer buildings, ones built as of the Northridge quake in 1994, are built to very strict standards to withstand an earthquake. The datacenters doubly so. I really don't think there is another place in the United States where buildings are built to strict codes according to the local known possible natural disaster.

So I really do think we're in the right place!

Oh, as to that whole thing where California is supposed to slide off in the ocean - land as big as a state of California is pretty thick. California might wander off into the Pacific sometime in the future, but, considering the realities of continental drift, that process takes thousands of years, not decades.

Hope this helps!

I don't think we were THAT afraid of where the servers are located. I knew where they were before I signed up.

Now, the though of relocation to Vegas really scares me as I think we've seen that DH staff is already a bunch of party animals.

(Honestly, the idea of Dallas with the big red button kinda scares me a bit. I'm not far enough away from the west coast.)

Wholly

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So, ok, theoretically, where should we move the servers?

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South-East Australia would be nice.

Nice weather, no natural disasters to speak of (except perhaps bush-fires) and it would really help *my* latency to the servers.

Mark

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Nice weather, no natural disasters to speak of (except perhaps bush-fires) and it would really help *my* latency to the servers.

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Didn't the bush file cut off some power to Melbourne last week that render the whole city in havoc? :)

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Didn't the bush file cut off some power to Melbourne last week that render the whole city in havoc? :)

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Yes it did, thanks to a state government who cares more about filling their own pockets by selling off the power systems to private operators many years ago, rather than keeping the power in government control.

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Didn't the bush file cut off some power to Melbourne last week that render the whole city in havoc? :)

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Well, I am a fair way out of the city itself, approx 70KM as the crow flies, and power here was not affected at all.

I would gladly offer DreamHost the use of my garden shed for their data-center, but they'll have to find their own Internet pipe(s), as I doubt my 1.5Mbit ADSL connection could handle the load.

Mark

Maybe it doesn't matter where DreamHost puts their servers, because we could all be using Google servers soon.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070119_001510.html

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because we could all be using Google servers soon.

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thats a scary article. one company with that much control over the internet can not be a good thing.

At least they have extensive redundancy and graceful fail-over.

... for a price. THAT'S what Cringley is cringing about.

Once you own everything you can charge anything.

Wholly

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Once you own everything you can charge anything.

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Everything can't be as inexpensive as the first year or 2 of dreamhost.