Up Close: Backup computers are key in disaster plan

11:15 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 13, 2005

By Dave Fehling / 11 News

Click to watch video

In buildings across Houston, inside special rooms kept at 62 degrees, millions of dollars worth of computers are running some of the city's most vital services.

KHOU

CyrusOne houses backup computers for hundreds of Houston businesses, hospitals and government agencies.

But it's all pretty much worthless if the power goes off.

So a power outage can be a computer's worst nightmare -- outages like the one last month northeast of Houston. Or even worse, storms like Allison that not only knocked out power but, in some cases, flooded computer rooms.

"You know it could happen again. In the Gulf Coast region it's not a question of if, but when," said Charles Bacarisse, Harris County District Clerk.

In 2001, Allison destroyed county computers. Court dockets backed up. Bacarisse had to sign thousands of child support checks by hand that otherwise would have been done by computer.

Now, the county has a backup plan.

"They're constructing it right now," said Bacarisse.

And so do big companies like Dynegy. Its computers in its downtown headquarters have now been duplicated six miles away in a heavily fortified building.

"We can run all of Dynegy remotely by flipping the switch," explained Chief Administrative Officer Blake Young.

In fact, the backup plan for more than 100 other local businesses, hospitals and government agencies sits inside the non-descript building off the Southwest Freeway. It's called CyrusOne.

Behind guarded doors and under video and electronic surveillance, lie row after row of computers.

"The building would be considered hardened, weather-resistant," explained Caroline Brelsford with CyrusOne.

The company's windowless building is out of the flood plane.

"She withstood and endured Allison," said Brelsford.

CyrusOne has its own water system and two power generators that can run for days.

"We have back up for our back up," explained Brelsford.

When the next hurricane hits, these backups could help local government keep running, hospitals get patient records, and companies like Dynegy do business.

In addition to its backup computers, Dynegy also has workspace here for 150 of its most critical employees.

"They know who they are. If we declared an emergency, they would then report to work at that remote location," explained Young. "They come in here and log on and their desktop appears just as they left it downtown and their phones instantly roll over."

Back downtown, the final touches are being put on the county court systems backup computers that will soon be moved out to the CyrusOne building.

"And we'll deploy in the next month or two, so we're hoping the weather holds," said Bacarisse.

Hoping the weather holds until then, so that when the next big one hits, at least some of Houston's computers will keep running.