In May, Adhost Internet, one of the region's leading providers of server colocation and shared server hosting, opened a second data center in downtown Seattle's Fisher Plaza built to withstand whatever nature dishes out-whether it's an earthquake, a power outage or a broken water main.
"We know it's critical that our customers' business servers be up and running, no matter what, said Will Riffle, Adhost President and CEO. "We can't afford to have an earthquake damage our facility or for the power to go out. So we designed a fail-safe facility that would keep business servers humming along-even during a catastrophe.
The new data center, dubbed Adhost West, was built using top-notch technology and a meticulous design. It's adjacent to the data center Adhost opened three years ago. Both are housed in Seattle's high-tech fortress Fisher Plaza, a Northwest telecommunications hub that's also home to other safety-sensitive companies including KOMO 4 Television, Fisher Radio, AT&T;, AboveNet, Time Warner Telecom, MCI, Verizon and more.
Built to meet or exceed N+1 standards for all of its critical systems -Fisher Plaza can withstand earthquakes, severe windstorms, power outages and other calamities. Adhost's servers are housed in secure buildings that exceed California seismic zone four standards -the toughest in the nation and the same for new hospitals and police stations. With round-the-clock monitoring by in-house technical support staff, some of the region's biggest businesses have servers colocated at Adhost that chug along hour after hour, day after day, 24x7.
But Adhost's data center isn't just secure, it's also environmentally sensitive. Adhost is cutting energy costs and consumption with louvers that wrap around the outside of the facility. These louvers exchange air with the outside when it's cold enough, reducing Adhost's consumption of electricity for data center cooling in chilly Seattle.
"We had a chance to build smarter-and greener-and we took advantage of that, Riffle said.
Adhost's new data center also features jumbo-sized 42-inch deep cabinets that accommodate today's cutting-edge servers. At the same time that servers are being built to run faster and consequently hotter, Adhost's greener design is helping reduce energy costs and the power needed to cool them. Both data centers deliver 24-hour surveillance of visitors by security guards and cameras.
All of Fisher Plaza is connected to eight multi-megawatt generators that can run at full capacity for weeks with emergency refueling. Plus there are two emergency wells, which can supply water to cooling towers if city water is unavailable.