Thursday, September 01, 2005

Flood Waters Can't Sink Net Link

Joel Johnson writes in Wired News:

Despite the loss of most public utilities, at least one hosting company in hurricane-battered New Orleans is still online, fighting against time and the odds to keep part of the internet humming.

Occupying the 10th floor of a downtown Big Easy office building, Zipa is a typical web-hosting and co-location center, with one key difference: It's sitting smack dab in the middle of some of the worst devastation the United States has ever experienced.

With buildings reduced to soggy ruin just a few blocks away, Zipa's data center -- built by Enron in its expansionist heyday -- still operates, powered by a 750-kilowatt diesel generator and connected to the rest of the world by a fiber optic connection buried deep underneath New Orleans' flooded streets.

That makes the employees of Zipa and sister company DirectNIC, which is just upstairs, some of the only flood victims in New Orleans with the ability to communicate with the outside world.

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