Disaster Recovery: Chicago, IL
Power
These locations have N+2 redundancy on all power systems (meaning 2 full spares for every 1 piece of equipment). Swing UPS (uninterruptible power supply) delivers isolated and redundant electrical feeds to each PDU, even during scheduled maintenance. Battery-free rotary power backup systems have been installed. These arrangements provide more than enough power & time for generators to come online. They can recharge in minutes after use rather than the days it takes to recharge battery banks. The primary power sources are redundant and feed from separate substations, one of which is the O’Hare power grid. They also has active contracts from 3 fuel companies which will begin fuel delivery immediately in case of an event. They store fuel onsite to power the facility for 72+ hours.
Fire
For fire emergencies, both locations have a VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus) system in place. They also have zoned water dispersion systems, so only the affected area is doused, leaving the rest of the data center fully operational.
Natural Disasters
They have thick concrete walls surrounding data center pods as well as the data center building itself and all hallways. There are sealed firewalls beneath data center floors.
Estimated Restore Times For Full Data Loss
Because each server (even at the same location) can vary in disk usage, it’s unfortunately not possible to give exact estimates on how long a full restore will take. From experience however, we have found that most servers can be restored within 8 to 16 hours.
For information regarding restoring VPS services, please click here.
