Plastic sheets are not the way to insure network survivability

7 September 2004: Cape Canaveral: KSC employees told to report to work Monday unless otherwise contacted, Florida Today

“The Process Control Center had severe water damage after losing part of its roof. It’s the hub of the e-mail and Web system for the shuttle launch complex, but because the computers were covered with plastic, the damage assessors think they probably were protected, KSC Director Jim Kennedy said.”

Editor’s note: Housing a webserver, email server – or any vital computer network hub in such a fragile location “covered with plastic” is just nuts. The fact that this facility is a few miles from the ocean, a few feet above sea level in a state prone to tropical storms and hurricanes makes me wonder just what the KSC folks were thinking – especially in a post 9/11 world.

I certainly hope NASA is going to catch up with the rest of the world and have secure, offsite mirror web facilities – such as those commonly used in the private sector. These armored, windowless facilities have uninterruptible back-up power, as well as server and connectivity redundancy. Fortunately, I understand that this storm has led to some definitive movement to fix this situation as NASA continues to develop its new web portal infrastructure.