We can say that the investment in this large generator paid for itself quickly.  Our customers would have been out of service more than once if they were dependent on ordinary power or even battery backup systems in July.  All our systems (and customer colocated servers) are backed up by high-end APC uninteruptible power source (UPS) battery systems, as well as our generator.  When the power outages hit in July, every service continued to run normally.

When a power outage or brownout hits, our UPS kicks on immediately and can keep the power on for about half an hour.  Within a minute, the generator starts up and takes over powering the entire data center.  Our UPS batteries get recharged while we wait patiently for the city power to turn back on.  When the city power comes back on, the generator continues to run for a while to make sure the power is stable, then eventually shuts off automatically. 

In the first outage in July, the power outage was for about 4 hours, and the UPS systems and generator ran great.  The air conditioners continued to cool and the servers kept humming along.  Then the power came on -- for everyone but us.  A nearby fuse in the city's power system blew when the power came back on.  The generator continued to run while the repairs were made some time later.  Based on the incident, we estimate we have enough capacity to run the entire data center for many days on a single tank of propane.  We can also "top off" the propane while the generator is running, so we can easily survive a much longer power outage.

We're continuing to make upgrades and investments like this to keep you and your services online.  We appreciate your continued business and will work hard to keep InfoWest the area's fastest and most reliable Internet Service Provider.  We hope you'll continue to choose InfoWest for your critical hosting and colocation needs in the future.