Storage Reparations

5:30 PM -- Business continuity often relies on advanced technologies such as continuous data protection, asynchronous replication, and tape encryption, but it also includes issues as basic as keeping a roof over your head. (See Biz Continuity Not Always a Disaster, Replication Rates High , and Replication's All the Rage).

Consider the case of Houston-based managed services firm CyrusOne. CyrusOne issued a news release today detailing how it strengthened the roof of its southwest data center in Houston. The center is one of the hot sites CyrusOne uses for business continuity.

What do roof repairs have to do with business continuity? Well, Houston is in hurricane territory and the old roof was built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. Now it can withstand a Category 5 storm, meaning winds of more than 150 miles per hour. And as we know all too well from the last two years -- hurricanes can create one of IT's worst headaches. (See LSU Raises Storage Bar, Laws of Data Recovery, and Hurricanes Spark Security Threats).

"Even if only three Category 5 hurricanes have hit the United States in the last century or so, the fact is that no one has a crystal ball," CyrusOne CEO David Ferdman said in the release.

As any good Boy Scout knows, you should always be prepared. Or as a storage administrator would say, "If you're in your data center, look up and see sky, it doesn't matter how solid your SAN is. You're in trouble."Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch