The situation is looking horrific all over New Orleans, and it seems to be getting worse every hour. So it's nice to have at least one story of success. What would appear to be one of the only facilities in New Orleans still operating, manned, and functional is a data center in downtown, which houses domain registrar DirectNIC.

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.

It's an advantage they are quick to put to use. DirectNIC's "crisis manager," Michael "Interdictor" Barnett, updates his Live Journal continually with on-the-street reports.

It may be the only blog currently both written and hosted inside New Orleans, and it's receiving nearly 3,000 visitors an hour.

A webcam streams images from inside the data center, showing haggard but smiling employees. Voice-over-IP telephones let stranded workers make telephone calls even when the rest of the city's phone service is severely overloaded. A photo gallery is filled with pictures uploaded by the dozen.

This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those of us who work in IT. I tell my clients that practically the only thing that could knock out our data centers is if downtown Los Angeles was leveled and the buildings were simply gone, in which case we'd have bigger problems. Still, it's impressive to see a data center actually living up to the marketing hype about how stable they are.

Luckily, judging by the blog Michael Barnett is running, there are trucks delivering diesel to the city. They just got a delivery today so they should be able to stay online for as long as their connections to the internet hold up. That blog provides a really amazing window into the situation in the city.

4:00pm
Then we had to take a router down to city hall to try to get the city rolling on their internet. That included wading through water. God, the city is a mess when you head down Poydras that way. The Superdome looks like the Jenin refugee camp. God help this city. Whether or not it ought to be rebuilt is secondary to the real issue: can it be rebuilt? Looking around, I wouldn't know where or how to start. Good luck with that.

1:28 pm
The word is that in Jefferson Parish and Orleans, FEMA has "bugged out." They haven't brought supplies in.

THE REAL MILITARY IS NOW FLOWING IN. National Guard is being replaced before our eyes. Watch the feed.

You can help out with the relief efforts. To help, contact the American Red Cross. You can donate on their web site or over the phone at (800) HELP NOW (435-7669). Donations of cash are far more flexible than in-kind donations and are therefore preferred. The American Red Cross has mobilized thousands of volunteers to respond in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and is sending close to 2,000 volunteers in the area to begin the initial response over the next few days.

For more ways to help, check out Instapundit's roundup of relief organizations.

ray2k

Huntingtown, MD

October 2003

SEP 01, 2005 03:21 PM

they took down SA

bean

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 01, 2005 03:22 PM

ray2k said:
they took down SA

What? What do you mean "SA"?

Edit: Nevermind, I get it. SomethingAwful. Well, according to the blog, they've lost most of their internet connections, and are down to their last one. SomethingAwful probably uses so much bandwidth that they had to take it down to be able to serve anything else.

[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 by bean]

plankton

I'm lost

December 2004

SEP 01, 2005 03:50 PM

well, yeah, but it was actually created to route communications around disaster areas [i.e. nuked ruins] because national TV and radio broadcast networks were too centralized to survive such a disaster. interesting how it worked out.

freshprncebelair

Ellicott City, MD

June 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:09 PM

Good good good.

Im pretty impressed that they waited out the storm instead of cutting the sites/servers over to a backup location and getting the fuck out of NO.

Well Done!

Margot_Dent

Los Angeles, CA

February 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:23 PM

bean said:

ray2k said:
they took down SA

oh fuck, THATS where it went.

datsun

Richmond, CA

October 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:56 PM

that's really intense. I hope the military can get in there and restore order soon. that blog chilled me.

acetracer

Hollywood, FL

January 2004

SEP 01, 2005 05:05 PM

An e-mail I got from DirecNIC

Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. wants to thank all of its directNIC.com
customers for the overwhelming support and inquiries into our wellbeing.

We are based in New Orleans and located in a secure and dry skyscraper,
where our datacenter has remained fully operational.

Our staff is safe and well -- some have been working around the clock in New
Orleans to keep clients running smoothly, and other employees have left to
safer locations to keep an eye on the network from afar.

We are pleased to announce that we haven't lost service once during this
entire distaster, and we have three weeks of backup power secured, and more
resources are on the way.

Additionally, backup options outside of New Orleans are being implemented as
an added precaution.

Thank you for your support and know we are working hard to maintain our
excellent services even during this castrophe.

Sincerely,

Sigmund J. Solares, J.D., M.B.A.
CEO
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.

BOARDS:

TOPICS:

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 01, 2005 01:45 PM

Huntingtown, MD

October 2003

SEP 01, 2005 03:21 PM

STAFF

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 01, 2005 03:22 PM

I'm lost

December 2004

SEP 01, 2005 03:50 PM

Ellicott City, MD

June 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:09 PM

Los Angeles, CA

February 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:23 PM

Richmond, CA

October 2004

SEP 01, 2005 04:56 PM

acetracer

Hollywood, FL

January 2004

SEP 01, 2005 05:05 PM