HOUSTON, March 15, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Contributing to the protection of Houston's economy and survivability in the upcoming 2006 hurricane season, CyrusOne (www.cyrusone.com) today announced that it has made a significant capital investment by upgrading the roof strength for its Southwest Freeway data center in Houston. This will make the facility's roof impervious to a storm rated Category 5 or higher, capable of sustaining wind speeds of over 150 miles per hour (130 knots), such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992 or Hurricane Camille in 1969. The facility was previously engineered to withstand a Category 3 hurricane.
Experts predict the 2006 hurricane season will bring storm activity equal to 2005. Houston area companies again will again risk physical damage to their IT infrastructure systems. According to the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, 2005 was the first season to bring 27 named tropical storms since such records were kept; about the last 150 years.
"Regardless of 2006 hurricane activity, our facility prides itself on being the safest place in Houston to house IT infrastructure when disaster hits," notes CyrusOne president and CEO, David Ferdman." Even if only three Category 5 hurricanes have hit the United States in the last century or so, the fact is that no one has a crystal ball. You are either ready at any given time or you're not. This data center, and every corporation that uses it, will be prepared to withstand maximum hurricane impact moving forward."
With the 2006 hurricane season rapidly approaching, CyrusOne has published a whitepaper titled, "Lessons Learned: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery after the 2005 Hurricane Season" (http://www.cyrusone.com/) discussing six critical lessons that emerged from the storm season. IT leaders from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies can benefit from these tactics to escape the most egregious pitfalls that came with the 2005 hurricane season. As part of its business continuity services, the company also provides "hot sites" (http://www.cyrusone.com/glossary.html) and workforce recovery space.
Many of the area's largest corporations such as Dynegy, Enbridge, METRO and OXY use the hardened facility as a failsafe place to house servers and other critical technology systems and processes.
About CyrusOne
CyrusOne is a leader in high availability data center services, providing managed hosting, colocation and managed IT services. We help businesses optimize returns on technology investment while ensuring application availability, data security and superior IT performance. For more information, visit www.cyrusone.com or call 1-866-297-8766.
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