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Keep It Local
updated: Oct 30, 2012, 8:23 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

I heard from a nurse friend that Cottage Hospital was having computer issues as their servers are located in New Jersey and were affected by Storm Sandy. Can anyone verify this? If that is true, I find it disappointing that they can't use and support local services, especially considering all of the sacrifices that they ask of our community (Helicopter noise, HUGE condo development, monopoly on care)

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 337348P	2012-10-30 08:59 PM
In this age of cloud computing anything is possible though I do not know for sure.
COMMENT 337349P	2012-10-30 09:00 PM
The computers are always going down..weather has nothing to do with it.
COMMENT 337365P	2012-10-30 10:42 PM
Huffington Past was down because of Sandy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/hurricane-sandy-websites_n_2043931.html
COMMENT 337371P	2012-10-30 11:45 PM
Cloud Takes a Beating From Hurricane Sandy http://www.inc.com/maeghan-ouimet/hurricane-sandy-takes-on-the-cloud.html?utm_source=dlvr.it
COMMENT 337379	2012-10-31 05:47 AM
Funny to think that the Cloud, instead of floating virtually somewhere in cyberspace ether, is in New Jersey.
COMMENT 337385	2012-10-31 06:33 AM
Being upset that they don't use a local server farm is like being upset that there isn't a power plant in town, or that Cottage doesn't have their own power plant in town. It's not really something you want in town.
MAVEN12	2012-10-31 06:51 AM
Re 385... Actually Cottage does have a power plant as part of their hospital buildings. It may not provide all the power they require, but it is there and has been for many years.
COMMENT 337391	2012-10-31 06:58 AM
Local services? Have you forgotten we live in a small town that has one of the highest price tags in the country. Where is this local server farm you suggest? Remember this is not produce we are talking about.
COMMENT 337397P	2012-10-31 07:21 AM
Yes, this is true. They have their server at another location in case of a disaster in California. I was a patient up there yesterday when computers were down and this was the reason.
COMMENT 337401P	2012-10-31 07:31 AM
We've experienced such reliability from the electronic systems that we've come to depend on that we imagine they are completely insulated from outside forces, but it just isn't true. Whether it's a force of nature taking down cloud servers that support a hospital, or Barnes and Nobles' credit card readers being hacked by scammers, nothing is 100% safe. Acknowledging that fact to the consumer is not good for business.
COMMENT 337403	2012-10-31 07:45 AM
Sometimes organizations buy products/systems from companies in other states, those companies are responsible for the location where the servers house their product/system not the organization that purchased it.
COMMENT 337418	2012-10-31 08:03 AM
received notice via work e-mail (I work there) that systems continued to be down.
COMMENT 337419	2012-10-31 08:03 AM
Why are you so concerned about Cottage Hospital's data management? Are you in the habit of going to a restaurant and telling the chef where to buy their ingredients? Seriously, why is the American habit of looking over the neighbour's fence and telling them what to do so pervasive? If freedom and liberty are hallmarks of our democracy this minding of others' business is totally un-American.
COMMENT 337423	2012-10-31 08:06 AM
Seriously...we need colored buttons on news items so that we can vote these whine-fests off the news page.
COMMENT 337424P	2012-10-31 08:09 AM
419 - Good comment. I also like how you spell neighbour.
COMMENT 337442	2012-10-31 08:38 AM
So Cottage has back up servers in California 'in case of emergency' and they didn't even fire them up when their servers back east were down?
COMMENT 337448	2012-10-31 08:46 AM
Accept the fact that you were inconvienced by Sandy. Nothing compared to the East Coast. Be patient and you will soon have your answer. Thousands of people are working around the clock to get everything up to speed.
COMMENT 337457	2012-10-31 09:04 AM
337442 - I think what was stated was that Cottage has a POWER plant - servers are something different.
COMMENT 337464	2012-10-31 09:18 AM
To my knowledge, there are no "local" data centers. As a few previous posters pointed out, there would be no logic to building one here. First, they'd have to go through a myriad of permitting scrutiny, and protests from many of you Edhat NIMBYs (probably including the OP), then they'd have to make it look like an 18th-century Spanish mission architecturally, then factor in the cost of land, near impossibility of getting workers that can afford the housing here. Add it all up and you understand why much of what businesses do here is outsourced to other regions.
COMMENT 337478	2012-10-31 09:42 AM
A recent study asked people what they thought Cloud computing meant. 51% thought that data would be lost or hard to get when it rains... phhffff The web is cloud computing people. Take a look at a visual tracert to see how your requests for this very site bounce around the country. Edhat appears to be hosted by Dreamhost with data centers in TN and NV. Nothing is or should be centralized - that's the very origin of the web. Aside from being smart in the event of a disaster, its standard operating procedure for any enterprise to spread their data to various servers for both consumption and protection. The real question is why isnt the company that provides this service to Cottage redundant?
COMMENT 337497	2012-10-31 10:16 AM
why wouldn't you just believe your friend who works at Cottage?
COMMENT 337542	2012-10-31 11:50 AM
OP - you mention the lack of support of locals and the sacrifice locals have made. Helicopter service - provides locals more immediate care. HUGE condo - provides housing so workers can be locals. Monopoly on Care - small town has excellent medical services monopoly or not.
COMMENT 337584	2012-10-31 01:24 PM
I'm not sure if people here are aware of how very bad it is in some parts of NY and NJ. NJ got it the worst - the coastal areas are devastated. Many of the people who are there are resilient but it will still take time to repair the infrastructure. My company fought with the board for years before they finally allowed us to move our servers from NY to CA. It was just more practical (not to mention faster).
SCEPTIC	2012-10-31 03:16 PM
IEEE's email servers are OK in NJ.
COMMENT 337705	2012-10-31 05:41 PM
There are data centers all over the US. Most mid and large-sized organizations have disaster management plans that allows them to operate on at least one mirrored data center site if their primary one goes down. Disaster recovery is the primary business of companies like Sungard.
COMMENT 337723	2012-10-31 06:25 PM
For the record I manage a collocation facility/data center here. We have a generator and battery back up, full security, HVAC and direct fiber optic fed data connections. There is also another one in town. Both of us are in Goleta and have many of the large SB companies as customers. Many companies looking for geographic diversity leave SB and go to data centers on the other side of the fault line and not near the coast. Las Vegas has a huge facility and is quite popular with many SB companies.
COMMENT 337861	2012-11-01 10:05 AM
"Cloud" computing is a joke. Nothing's in "The Cloud", it's instead stored in server farms far away from your business or house. That means you sacrifice control and security. And when a catatrophy hits? Say goodbye to access.

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