Business Continuity in Data Centers and Seismic Isolation Applications

Abstract

Economic losses from earthquakes raised many questions regarding the adequacy of the current seismic design and seismic isolation in data centers. Organizations accommodated new explicit seismic isolation applications in their business continuity and disaster recovery plans. These applications aim acceptable damage levels that correspond to acceptable business interruption for data centers in case of an earthquake. In this study, the authors aim to discuss the importance of seismic isolation applications that can be implemented for data centers within business continuity and disaster recovery planning contexts. To provide a clearer aspect on seismic isolation applications, the topic has been discussed within the framework of international standards. They conclude that GSA, ASCE, and Uptime Institute provide internationally recognized standards which make raised floors a good option for data centers. These standards provide technical documentation for service functioning with high levels of availability during an outage.