In California, earthquakes are not ‘seasonal’ disasters. They can strike at any time and with no warning. Experts have predicted there is a 67% chance of an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 or greater striking Los Angeles within the next 30 years. If you conduct business online, that’s reason to worry.

Earthquakes can disable data centers by damaging the building, its equipment, and the connections that sustain it. Your information may not actually be lost, but without access to critical data like customer and financial records, your business will not be able to manage the event successfully.

The good news is that it is possible to stay operational during a natural disaster. To ascertain if your Los Angeles data center is up to the challenge of keeping your information safe and accessible no matter what, read on.

Offsite Backup

Ask the facility manager if their data center does secondary backups and stores the data at another location that’s unlikely to be affected by crises that compromise the main data center.

Cloud backups are on the rise as a source of customer data protection. Software on principal storage system replicates data and transmits it to the service provider’s remote backup location, eliminating a single point of failure.

Disaster-Proof Rack Storage

Ideally, a Los Angeles data center should use seismic-rated rack storage to hold customer servers.

This type of rack system is specially designed to counteract the ground shaking caused by earthquakes.

Barriers such as wire mesh, attached to the front and back, can prevent stored hardware from shaking loose and falling out.

Fire Protection Systems

Fire is a normal byproduct of an earthquake and can destroy hardware that survived the upheaval.

Newer buildings are typically built to allow the sprinkler system to move with the building when seismic upheavals occur, preventing rupture and malfunction. Older buildings, though, may lack the bracing needed to protect the system. So raise this question with your data center’s facility manager.

Suspended Ceiling Support

While newer buildings likely have proper bracing for suspended ceilings installed, older facilities may not have the reinforcements necessary to keep the ceiling from crashing and damaging equipment during an earthquake.

This is another potential problem you will want to discuss with the management of any data center hosting your equipment.

Additional Resources

• How Data Centers Protect Your Data During Earthquakes
• California Earthquake Authority to House Its Mission Critical IT Infrastructure With RagingWire Data Centers

Bottom Line

Earthquakes not only interrupt business operations, they can also spell the end for companies that don’t have safeguards in place for their data. Confirming that your Los Angeles data center has both structural and procedural safeguards in place against earthquake damage is the best way to keep your business running during and after any upheaval.

Does your Los Angeles data center have adequate protection against earthquakes and other natural disasters? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

And if you’re responsible for bringing in new clients and revenue to a data center in the Los Angeles area, make sure that you download your free copy of our eBook on “Lead Generation Best Practices for Colocation Data Centers.”