HURRICANE SANDY POSES A TEST TO THE U.S. TELECOM AND COMPUTER DATA SERVICES

Hurricane Sandy’s near arrival has caused a serious threat on the key data and telecom services sector which needs to keep information flowing during crisis.

The arrival of the hurricane has also raised questions about the reliability of data centers. Data centers have come under the scanner earlier for their massive power outages.

“This super-storm will test the preparations of all the networks,” said independent technology analyst Jeff Kagan.

“Every carrier has lived through many different weather problems like hurricanes and have improved over time… but whether it will be enough is the question.”

The major telecom giants have explained that there have been no problems with the services on mid Monday afternoon. But they seem to be bracing for the worst.

Verizon said in a Twitter message at 2100 GMT, “All systems & networks are operating normally, and we’ve implemented add’l preparations for Sandy.”

Sprint said it has constituted and deployed a disaster recovery team, along with flood relief measures at all its network facilities and retail stores.

Most important are the data centers and hoe they are going to protect all the data stored. A power cut would mean loss of all data including music files, payrolls, and even the military confidential data.

Earlier this year, power outages combined with cyber threats have taken down Amazon data centers and their clients Netflix and Reddit.

And because increasing amounts of corporate and government data are now stored in cloud-sharing sites, analysts will be watching to see how data centers withstand the crisis.

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