Last week Rich Miller wrote a piece in Data Center Knowledge pondering the impact of the recent volcanic activity on the potential for data centers in Iceland. Although certainly these events create the potential for negative perception, it is important to realize that (i) they are not historically unusual, and (ii) have been accounted for in every aspect of siting and design of both the data centers and supporting infrastructure. Here are some additional comments that I posted in response to the article:
The current volcanic activity is not so much an anomaly. Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that is currently erupting is along a belt of high geophysical activity. Several years ago we heard of a new island rising from the ocean off of Iceland. This is the same belt of activity. It is distant from population centers and viable data center locations. This region and it phenomenon are taken into consideration in the design of all electrical and communication systems. In fact, the newer cables land west of this region so that they will not be separated from the population and data centers should there be an event such as this. The older cables have alternate routes that traverse the northern edge of the country.
The issue of potential (data center equipment) contamination in Iceland or other countries needs to be monitored, but should not be much of a concern. Prudent designers using air side economization typically use a heat exchanger or high efficiency filters to trap vehicle emissions and other fine particulate. Although volcanic fallout may foul this equipment and increase maintenance costs it is highly unlikely to result in any material damage to equipment within data centers.
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