How Japan's Data Centers Survived the Earthquake

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

How Japan's Data Centers Survived the Earthquake

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 1, 2011 @05:37AM from the godzillaproofing-comes-in-handy dept.

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."

8 of 37 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Well... by errandum · 2011-07-01 05:43 · Score: 2

Almost every single building that wasn't in a coastal city or near the ocean survived. Why is this news?
Post-quake Japan? by blair1q · 2011-07-01 05:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

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?
1. Re:Post-quake Japan? by bluemonq · 2011-07-01 05:48 · Score: 2
  
  Tsunamis, however, are a bugbear they are not really prepared for... did any data centers in the wet zone survive?
  There are no data centers in that region... precisely because they didn't want to have to deal with tsunamis.
2. Re:Post-quake Japan? by PerfectionLost · 2011-07-01 06:38 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Did any data centers in the wet zone survive?
  From the Article:
  
  Another mitigating factor was that 70 percent of Japan's data centers are in the Tokyo region, which escaped relatively lightly. There are no data centers in the northeast where the tsunami hit, in part because that's precisely where tsunamis are expected.
3. Re:Post-quake Japan? by That+Guy+From+Mrktng · 2011-07-01 09:05 · Score: 2
  
  Yes it's dumb to build nuclear reactors in places that can be flooded... oh, wait.
Strange... by RottenJ · 2011-07-01 06:11 · Score: 2

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
1. Re:Strange... by Bobfrankly1 · 2011-07-01 07:16 · Score: 2
  
  My employer just changed providers away form AT&T, precisely for that reason. Our new vendor is more then twice as fast, at half the price. I feel sorry for those in areas where AT&T is the only provider...
Please correct me if I'm wrong... by Benfea · 2011-07-01 06:28 · Score: 2

...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.