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."

Comments

Post-quake Japan?

[blair1q]

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?

Re:Post-quake Japan?

[PerfectionLost]

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.