Fergie's Tech Blog

Coping with Data Centers in Crisis

Peter Burrows writes on Businessweek Online:

Dec. 18 will be a landmark day at FedEx. That's when yuletide business is expected to peak, reaching a record 9.8 million deliveries. Company computers not only have to process those transactions but they'll also need to handle an expected 1,000 online inquiries per second from gift buyers and recipients at certain periods during the day.

That's on top of keeping up with the company's everyday operating needs. "We call it a dim-the-lights day," says FedEx Chief Information Officer Rob Carter, because the thousands of servers in FedEx.com's data centers need every bit of power just to keep up with the workload.

posted by Fergie @ 11/06/2006 11:08:00 AM