Verizon has topped the list of 16 companies honored by The Uptime Institute with its 2006 Continuous Availability Award. The award recognizes companies with data centers that have not had a facilities-related outage for at least one year.
The institute listed 25 such data centers throughout North America. Verizon has six centers on the list, more than any other company. In addition, Verizon's Burlington, Mass., center was one of only two centers honored for not having had an outage in 10 years, the longest period in the institute's history.
"In a business where an hour of downtime can result in millions of dollars of lost revenue, it is critical for large-business customers to be confident that the networks they depend on are continuously up and running at peak efficiency," said Lee A. Brathwaite, vice president of Verizon Services, a centralized operations business unit that manages real estate, supply chain and finance functions for all Verizon companies.
Kevin Shine, senior vice president for Verizon Information Processing Services, said: "These awards demonstrate that Verizon's networks and services are supported by industry-leading data center operations. And, even with this success, we will continue to take steps to evolve our operations to keep them on the cutting edge."
Overall, Verizon data center operations have a five-year availability average of 99.9992 percent.
The Uptime Institute issued the awards recently at its Site Uptime Network fall 2006 conference in Minneapolis.
In addition to Verizon's Burlington center, other Verizon centers recognized include one in Silver Springs, Md., and one in Fort Wayne, Ind., for not experiencing a facilities-related outage in six years and eight years, respectively.
Verizon data centers in Andover, Mass., and Freehold, N.J., were recognized for three years of continuous availability.
"This has been the most successful year overall for our members, and it shows the benefits of industry leaders coming together to share best practices and success stories," said Ken Brill, executive director of The Uptime Institute.
The institute was founded in 1993 to provide educational and consulting services for facilities and information technology organizations. It also serves as a conduit for industry leaders to share knowledge to improve overall industry data-center performance.