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Data Centers Offer Workspace for Customers in Emergencies

San Diego area data center operators are offering more than just space for computers. They are making space for people too.

Born out of experience with actual disasters, local competitors ScaleMatrix, American Internet Services and RedIT are all stepping up in various ways to assure their customers have a place to work near their servers during emergencies, when electrical power may be interrupted at offices and residences.

ScaleMatrix is building what it calls the San Diego Business Continuity Center next to its data center in Kearny Mesa. The first customer will move in next month, said Chris Orlando, a ScaleMatrix co-founder and its chief sales and marketing officer.

The three vendors offer San Diego businesses a menu of computer services, including redundant data centers in San Diego and other markets.

AIS and RedIT each have second data centers in Phoenix. ScaleMatrix works with a center near Houston. If any of their San Diego data centers go down, the Arizona or Texas centers are there to keep data safe.

Steve Wallace, chief technology officer for American Internet Services, recalled standing on the roof at an AIS facility in Kearny Mesa in October 2007, watching wildfires approach.

“Most disaster recovery strategies get data into at least another geographic risk zone,” said Wallace.

“We have huge pipes that go directly to Phoenix,” he added. “We can synchronize the data in San Diego and Phoenix if something bad happens.”

Business Continuity

ScaleMatrix got to thinking about its Business Continuity Center during the blackout of September 2011.

Like other local data centers, ScaleMatrix’s Kearny Mesa facility had emergency generators. It was an island of power and light during the event. The outage started around 3:30 p.m. and continued all night, stretching more than 12 hours.

ScaleMatrix representatives recalled that executives from the health care and telecom sectors set up war rooms at their facility.

“We looked at that and said, ‘Wow,’” Orlando said.

Sept. 8, 2011 convinced the owners of ScaleMatrix that they could lease dedicated office space with guaranteed electrical power, telephone services, access to the Internet and close proximity to servers.

“We have the capacity to build 70 offices in this space,” Orlando said, as he showed a visitor around the second floor of a warehouse on Kearny Villa Road. A small part of the space was already partitioned by wallboard, but most of the expanse had yet to be finished. There was the smell of fresh paint.

ScaleMatrix is marketing cubicles at $499 per month, and suites starting at $1499 per month. High-profile San Diego institutions have already leased offices, Orlando said, and half of those clients have asked for custom spaces. With an on-site construction crew, ScaleMatrix can build a space to suit within 30 days, Orlando said.

Amenities will include a shared kitchen space, which will have coffee service and vending machines. Like the data center next door, the business continuity center will have armed security and emergency power generators. It’s also located near the confluence of several freeways.

Wallace, the executive at AIS, said most data centers let customers set up shop under their roofs, free of charge, during disasters. During the 2011 blackout, he said people congregated at AIS’ facility, which had generator power, and watched Thursday night football on television.

Orlando noted that the ScaleMatrix cubicles will be reserved for the exclusive use of customers who lease them.

Wallace also noted that AIS’ Phoenix location is within a comfortable driving distance from San Diego, if technicians needed to work on computer equipment in person.

Technical Sophistication Required

Disaster recovery and business continuity solutions require a great deal of technical sophistication. It’s something all three of the San Diego vendors offer. The systems must include tools for failing over to the second site, Wallace said.

Keeping a website up and running may be less important than making sure people get paid, servicing clients or shipping product, he added.

ScaleMatrix, for its part, now has slightly less than 100,000 square feet of space in Kearny Mesa. Its data center clients have grown to include San Diego’s Superior Court and the San Diego Unified School District.

AIS counts Callaway Golf, Mitchell International and Hold-Free Networks among its customers.

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