Subject: Low Incidence of Natural Disasters in Austin

Austin is in Central Texas, northwest of Houston, occupying an area of 270 square miles. The eastern part of the city is flat, while the western side has rolling hills. Austin lies on the Colorado River and has several man-made lakes. The city has a series of dams to control water and limit flooding. Subject to a low incidence of natural disasters, Austin is an ideal location for a colocation center. Four major ecological regions intersect in Austin, making the city favorable for businesses. Austin colocation centers are in demand, as many businesses require reliable housing and services for their IT infrastructure.

The Environment

Companies wishing to explore Austin colocation may want to know the likelihood of extreme weather. Thunderstorms are rare in the city, although the city averages 33 inches of rain per year and has a humid subtropical climate. 60 percent of the days in Austin are sunny.

The winters in Austin are dry and mild, with only an average of 18 days below freezing. Only about every two years does the city having a freezing ice storm and snow is very rare. Hurricanes are also rare in the area, since Austin is far inland. While tornados occasionally occur in Central Texas, they usually strike far to the north of Austin. Earthquakes are also not an issue in the area. For these reasons, Austin colocation is a wise choice.

The Power Grid

The environment in Austin has a low susceptibility to natural disasters, but Austin colocation centers have taken every precaution to implement redundant systems in case of an emergency. One major factor is the fact that Texas is serviced by the Texas Power Grid. This grid is independent of the Eastern and Western power grids, which makes it more stable.

Austin colocation centers implement various types of power sources. They offer independent substations, independent feeds and underground feeds. Clients can rest easy knowing that being on an independent power grid and having multiple power sources and configurations will give them continuous uptime, even if Austin in the unlikely event that a disaster strikes.

An Austin colocation facility can do nothing to control the environment, but they can design facilities that provide redundancies and back-ups. During the design and construction process, they continually review their plans and revise them as needed. These providers communicate with clients about emergency provisioning and educate them about the procedures to follow in case of emergency.

Regulatory Agencies

Austin colocation centers also work with regulatory agencies in order to stay in compliance and prepare for future needs. Several local and federal agencies cooperate with Austin colocation facilities to provide distributed power and to expand reliability. Two major agencies include the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

Anticipating the Future

Much of the work that an Austin colocation facility does in relation to disaster management lies in anticipating future power needs for the region and the Austin colocation center. In the next year, for instance, electrical needs in the region are expected to grow by 2%, so Austin colocation providers work with agencies to ensure that clients’ needs are covered.

Ann Haysworth: Bio

My area of expertise is, broadly, consumer technology, with a focus on new tech product developments and technology trends and issues such as VPN, Colocation Data Centers, and Usenet.