Are Dallas Data Centers the Safest Choice?
Many companies choose Dallas data centers due to proximity to their offices or headquarters, but for some, choosing a data data center location is based on its security features and disaster recovery potential. If this is the case, Dallas may not be the ideal choice for your business.
Dallas Risk Assessment
Some companies have determined Dallas data centers to be unsafe due to the high risk of natural disasters. Dallas is in a high-risk region known as Tornado Alley, and counties in the Dallas area rank as the riskiest for tornadoes in the state of Texas. Since 1957, Dallas has seen over 60 major tornadoes classified as F2 or higher. F2 tornadoes are ranked for causing considerable damage and have wind speeds up to 157 mph. In recent years, massive tornadoes have ripped through the Dallas area causing over $1 billion in damages per incident. Additionally, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) concluded that the risk for earthquakes in the Dallas area increased tenfold in 2016. This increase is largely due to fracking efforts in the area.
The Cost of Data Center Downtime
It only takes one storm to cause an outage, and Dallas colocation facilities without diverse dual power feeds and diverse substations can easily face outages when power lines go down. In addition to power outages, there’s also the issue of flooding and damage from hail and strong winds. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2016 Cost of Data Center Outages report, the average cost of data center downtime these days is $9,000 per minute. That’s why companies that have some flexibility when it comes to the location of their data center footprints prefer to avoid risky regions. There are several other locations to consider for colocation in Texas, and Austin is one of the safest!
The Cost of Data Center Downtime
Austin has a low risk of natural disasters – one of the lowest in the nation. It also has reliable energy and is just a short driving distance from the Dallas metro area. Austin is located more than 100 miles from Tornado Alley and is outside of the 250 mph wind zone where Dallas and Ft. Worth are located. It is also located more than 200 miles from the Gulf Coast, positioning it as one of the safest major cities in Texas for data center operations. See why Austin is the safe and smart choice.
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See our Austin Colocation Facilities
Data Foundry owns and operates three premier carrier-neutral colocation facilities in Austin, TX. Our purpose-built facilities support a wide variety of deployments, including High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. These data centers have concurrently maintainable power and cooling infrastructure and diverse power and network feeds.