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How Japan's Data Centers Survived the Earthquake
jfruhlinger writes "A lot of Japan's infrastructure was knocked offline by this year's massive earthquake and tsunami, but its data centers by and large stayed running. How'd they pull it off? Good architecture and good planning, for the most part. But the data centers still face challenges in post-quake Japan, not least a new law mandating reductions in power use."
Almost every single building that wasn't in a coastal city or near the ocean survived. Why is this news?
Japan is a hump in the Earth created by subduction of the Pacific plate under the North American plate (yes, Japan is tectonically a part of North America).
Japan will only be post-quake when the Pacific plate stops digging under it.
They survived this quake because they're being rattled persistently. They survived it the way everyone else survives persistent exposure to dihydrogen monoxide, a known corrosive agent, or high-frequency near-visible photons, a known carcinogen. They are adapted to live in it because it is a continually reoccurring part of their environment.
Tsunamis, however, are a bugbear they are not really prepared for... did any data centers in the wet zone survive?
I was going to make a Square Enix joke - because their data centers didn't survive the quake.
Actually, they did. It's just that then the whole "loss of power production capacity" thing happened. And they had to turn off their data centers in order to reduce their power usage.
Which is strange, because the data center they turned off was for Final Fantasy XIV - their failed MMO. Not sure why it was on in the first place. Also included FFXI, which still has players, so it's not like they didn't lose some money from the deal.
It's actually even more hilarious than that, because they recently moved their data center from an area that was completely unaffected by the quake to Tokyo, which was hit by the brown outs. So they basically managed to have horrible luck.
Note that it'd be somewhat tragic if these were actual IT services that people used for actual work, but they're not. They're data centers for really bad online games that by all rights shouldn't still exist in the first place. Which makes it funny.
Funny, I just got a call from my AT&T datacenter rep, apparently he needs to raise our monthly fees.
"It's fun to obey the machine" - Ralph Wiggum
...but I seem to recall a lot of reports from the aftermath of the 'quake commenting on the fact that the Internet was often the only utility still working for people.
Because it wasn't the building that were damaged; they had rolling brownouts due to the nuke plants destruction.
So data centers without backup power were in trouble, and --- wait, why is this news?
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
All the hentai is backed up offshore. Everything else is expendable.
Have gnu, will travel.
Architects are in charge of aesthetics. Engineers are in charge of functionality.
The greatest structures are the ones where the architects and engineers were the same people/person.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Excuse me...
If DSL was up, then phones were up. DSL travels through your phone lines.
Also, nowadays, TV, phone and internet all share the same "pipes". Saying that "the internet was one of the only things working" is bulls**t.
If the internet worked, then everything else was working. Whatever he or you were trying to prove is irrelevant.