Data center fire protection was certainly overlooked in this case, when a data hosting facility in Wisconsin experienced a fire. The fire turned their servers into “racks of blackened, melted plastic and steel” (according to the Green Bay Press Gazette). While this company had fire insurance, and fire alarms installed, the damaged was still significant, as it took 10 days to get customer’s websites back online. This Wisconsin company faced several problems, such as the lack of a backup facility, and the fact that they had no data center fire suppression system installed.
As a expert in the field of server protection, the first question that comes to my mind is…Why did they not have a data-rated server vault to protect their mission critical equipment? A fireproof server vault would have helped to minimize damage and downtime…this is often overlooked by smaller data center providers, but the security of clients’ data can greatly outweigh the cost.
Should more small business be considering data protection, as today’s society continues to move towards a paper-free world, where electronic data becomes the norm?
If you are looking for a data center/hosting provider, I found this article helpful, as it offers some specific questions to ask a potential provider.
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