International connectivity provider Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) has restored service at its Chile data center, a Global Crossing client told BNamericas.
 
The source, who requested anonymity, said the data center services were back on line by late in the day Tuesday (March 2), adding that no data had been compromised.
 
"Nevertheless, damage was done," the source said. "We were not able to operate."
 
BNamericas was first tipped off about the data center failure on Tuesday morning, when a source disclosed that service had been down since Saturday, when Chile was hit by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake.
 
"The information that we've received is that, even with all the security regulations and conditions that it should have, even for catastrophes like this, the data center failed," the source said at that time.
 
GLOBAL CROSSING RESPONSE
 
Global Crossing later confirmed that its Chilean data center services had crashed. The company's director for media relations, Michael Schneider, told BNamericas that Global Crossing was "working very hard to recover our data center services as quickly as possible."
 
"Power service has returned to the data center and more than 85% of customers have been restored; those customers have reported no loss of data," he said. "We have multiple power supplies at the data center that were impacted by the earthquake and needed to be restored in phases. The data center is structurally safe and secure and we expect service to be fully restored to all customers shortly."
 
Schneider also noted that Global Crossing has sent employees into Chile from other countries to help restore operations, and that the company's networking services had not been compromised.
 
QUESTIONS REMAIN
 
In January, Global Crossing Chile's data center and security manager, Marcela Nuñez, confirmed to BNamericas that the division had recently concluded the expansion of its data center in Santiago.
 
Global Crossing Chile had installed new redundant electrical systems and improved climatization, both of which were aimed at allowing the company to provide higher availability for current customers and host a larger number of them.
 
The Global Crossing client in contact with BNamericas affirmed that the service provider has been in communication with its data center clients, but said that the company's explanations have lacked coherency.
 
"They've given explanations, but they haven't been consistent," the source said. "They've said that they had problems with fuel tanks, then they've said that they had problems with batteries, with the data center UPS, and they've said that some racks that weren't theirs moved and consequently caused some short circuits."
 
Global Crossing offers co-location facilities in 60 cities around the world and 17 data centers - principally in Latin America, with new additions in the US, the UK and Europe that are focused on managed services.
 
Data center services have become the keystone of Global Crossing's "invest and grow" element in its business, which includes hosting and managed services and collaboration. The company significantly boosted that end of its business in Latin America when it acquired Argentine-owned Impsat in 2007. Since then it has taken its invest and grow business global, and it also plans to take the cloud computing services it has been providing in Latin America to other parts of the world in the near future.
Matthew Malinowski
Business News Americas