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Power Problems Prompt St. Lawrence, N.Y., Officials’ Search for Data-Storage Alternatives

Equipment problems at the county's data center reinforce the importance of developing a comprehensive plan to improve the region's disaster recovery capabilities.

(TNS) — Major equipment problems in December and January at St. Lawrence County, N.Y.'s data center have prompted county officials to explore better ways to preserve electronic data.

On several occasions, power surges destroyed power supply equipment that’s housed in the county courthouse basement.

The stray electrical voltage disrupted the county’s phone system, email capabilities, video conferencing equipment and other systems related to information technology. It also damaged storage discs.

“We really felt a little under siege. We felt like we were going to walk in (the data center) and something was going to blow up,” said County Planning Director Keith J. Zimmerman. “It was very disruptive.”

During Monday’s Operations Committee meeting, Zimmerman said the cost of replacing most of the destroyed equipment was covered under maintenance contracts.

After six weeks of analysis, a consulting company made several suggestions to improve the problem, he said.

“There was no conclusive smoking gun, but recommendations included a number of items, all in the arena of best management practices,”  Zimmerman said.

The analysis was conducted by INFO-Tech, a contract advisory and research service.

Recommendations include regrounding the main electrical entrance with an earthen ground, which has already been completed. Also, a new series of copper rods were installed behind a corner of the courthouse building.

There are still sporadic problems, but the frequency is much lower than what was occurring in December and January, Zimmerman said.

The situation reinforced the importance of developing a comprehensive plan to improve the county’s disaster recovery capabilities. County officials are speaking to vendors about the use of traditional hardware redundancy versus a hybrid system. Another option involves preserving data through a virtual, cloud-based redundancy system.

The cost of those options is part of the review,  Zimmerman said.

“We’re evaluating off-site data backup and storage options and we hope to make a recommendation in August,” he said.

The associated cost would most likely be included as part of a capital plan in next year’s county budget, Zimmerman said.

©2015 Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.