DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / SEPTEMBER 22, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 38    ( Table of Contents )

Breaking News - Security:

New AFCOM Data Center Industry Survey Shows Blackout Effects

The nation's worst power blackout, which occurred on Aug. 14 and affected more than 50 million people in the Northeast, Midwest and virtually all of New York State, had significant effects on the country's IT grid according to a survey of the nation's enterprise data centers. More than 500 data center managers and executives responded to an online survey conducted in early September by AFCOM's Data Center Institute, a leading think-tank on data center related issues.

Among the survey's findings:

• Almost one third of the nation's enterprise data centers were affected in some fashion by the power outage, although relatively few lost power completely
• Among those data centers affected by the outage, there were negative economic effects:
• Two percent report that they lost more than $10 million as a result of the outage
• 1 percent report losses of between $5 million-$10 million
• 3 percent report losses between $1 million and $5 million
• 7 percent report losses between $500,000-$1 million
• 10 percent report losses of $100,000-$500,000 More than half of those impacted by the blackout report that the associated costs to their organizations were relatively low -- under $10,000
• Another one quarter reported loses of between $10,000 and $100,000
• Enterprise data centers affected by the power report having a variety of responses to the outage, ranging from complete shutdown, to shifting to backup power sources, to losing access to critical applications, or invoking disaster recovery procedures. Of those that were affected, most switched to onsite backup generators as sources of power and a relatively small percentage lost power completely
• Both survey respondents as a whole, and those whose data centers were affected by the blackout, plan on additional training and testing of backup power devices and existing disaster recovery plans in response to the power failure. Interestingly, data centers executives affected by the outage plan on more training and equipment testing than do those who were unaffected
• Sixty-five percent of survey respondents report that the blackout will have no effect on their disaster recovery budget. Of those noting a budgetary increase, 65 percent indicate that it will be less than 5 percent.

According to Jill Eckhaus, president of AFCOM, "The survey shows that preparing for the unthinkable has become a critical data center task because their very existence depends on how successfully they can implement backup plans and disaster recovery solutions. Clearly data centers are the engine behind much of today's economy because of their importance in running critical business applications on which we've all come to rely.

"While the power outage affected a huge swath of the nation and caused significant costs for many enterprise data centers, this survey also shows that data centers exhibited remarkable resilience in the different ways that they dealt with this challenge. As an organization dedicated to serving the data center industry, we are committed to continuing to provide the knowledge and best practices that our members can use to better handle such challenges in the future," said Eckhaus.

AFCOM is the leading membership organization for enterprise data center managers. The Data Center Institute, formed by AFCOM, is comprised of a select group of enterprise vendors and senior data center managers, including Allen Systems Group, BMC Software, Computer Associates, Sun Microsystems, Imation, and senior data center managers from Cooper Tools and Illinois Power. Detailed results of the survey and demographic information can be downloaded from www.afcom.com.