It is amazing how many data centres out there seem to suffer from power failures. The popular website, Myspace, went down recently due to a power failure reported across the web. Guy Bunker, Chief Scientist for Symantec said that the power failure amongst other things showed ‘…the knock-on effects of not being prepared for things to go wrong.’ When the site went down, Pacman, a popular arcade game grom the 1980s was put up to keep visitors amused. Other favourites from this period include Asteroids and Space Invaders and these still beat the pants off the voilent packed games we see children playing today but that is another matter.

If the company hosting the site did have a Power Continuity plan in place then it needs to be looked at again in terms of the levels of resilience provided and its ability to recover and adapt to failures, seamlessly.

The BBC recently reported that 800 homes and businesses within the Lincolnshire area where affected by several lightning strikes which resulted in minor damage and power disruption.

This summer’s heatwave will see more power disruptions like this, especially when humidity levels are high.

When we talk about power failures few people relate them to distribution hardware failures. This recent news from Warwickshire County Cricket Club links a recent power failure to the sudden failure of a component (non-serviceable) in their local substation.

A recent article in the Guardian Unlimited concerning Power Failures discusses the progress councils are making in tackling climate change and in particular how they have embraced alternative energy sources. Over 82% believe that they are not doing enough.