Telecommunications networks face storm test

The arrival of the massive storm comes amid lingering questions about the reliability of data centres after a series of power outages caused major problems earlier this year.

"This super-storm tests the preparations of all the networks," said independent technology analyst Jeff Kagan.

"Every carrier has lived through many different weather problems like hurricanes and the services improved over time but whether these improvements will be enough is the question."

Major telecom carriers had reported no major problems by mid-afternoon on Monday, but were bracing for the worst.

Verizon said in a Twitter message at 2100 GMT, "All systems and networks are operating normally, and we've implemented additional preparations for Sandy."

Sprint said it was mobilising a "disaster recovery" team and instituting flood prevention measures at network facilities and retail stores.

More significant may be how data centres hold up in the storm. If these centres lose power, it could mean a loss of access for items stored in the Internet "cloud," everything from music files to payrolls or military documents.

Earlier this year outages at Amazon data centres took down websites such as 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 centres withstand the crisis.

Akshay Sharma, an analyst who follows data networks for Gartner Inc, said the systems should hold up if they are engineered correctly.

"Bad things can happen but it's usually just a matter of minutes or hours before things get squared away," he said.

But Sharma said that if there are design flaws, the systems may lack the backup needed for multiple outages, or may open up vulnerabilities to denial of service attacks.

One major cloud storage firm, Nirvanix, announced that it was activating its disaster plan to allow customers using its New Jersey data centre to move their data to another location.

"Currently all of the data in Nirvanix's Node 4 data centre in New Jersey is secure and all services remain normal and available," the company said.

"However, for those customers seeking extra peace of mind, Nirvanix is enabling them to select where they would like their data to specifically reside, at no additional cost."

Amazon Web Services, which hosts a number of websites as well as government cloud data and which suffered several high-profile outages this year, said on its "dashboard" that all its US centres were operating normally as of 2000 GMT.

Cloud and IT firm SunGard said it was on "high alert" and would give updates via Twitter.

Scott Martin of online financial newsletter The Trust Advisor said the move to the cloud allows the financial sector to keep operating in spite of the storm.

"Large organisations can simply shift support work to areas well outside the disrupted zone, allowing work to carry on almost seamlessly," he said.

"If client files are hosted on cloud servers or in redundant data centres -- and at this point, it practically amounts to the same scenario -- they can access critical data without going near the office, even if the office loses power or floods.

"And as long as the juice holds out, they can even re-route meetings that were scheduled for the office to Facetime, Skype or some other video-conferencing applications."

The Federal Communications Commission urged consumers to avoid taxing the systems. It said that non-emergency phone calls should be limited.

"This will minimise network congestion, free up 'space' on the network for emergency communications and conserve battery power if you are using a wireless phone," the FCC suggested.

Source: AFP via I-NET Bridge