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The Planet CEO Provides Update; Will Be Days Before Full Recovery
Yesterday we were tracking a fire that occured at one of The Planet’s datacenters. Check our previous coverage to read the prior updates along with many customer comments that really are quite negative. Below is an update from The Planet CEO. You might also check this thread on TheHosting News where a discussion of power reductions, air conditioning systems and an award that The Planet won for their data center.
From The Planet CEO Douglas Erwin:
As previously committed, I would like to provide an update on where we stand following yesterday’s explosion in our H1 data center. First, I would like to extend my sincere thanks for your patience during the past 28 hours. We are acutely aware that uptime is critical to your business, and you have my personal commitment that The Planet team will continue to work around the clock to restore your service.
As you have read, we have begun receiving some of the equipment required to start repairs. While no customer servers have been damaged or lost, we have new information that damage to our H1 data center is worse than initially expected. Three walls of the electrical equipment room on the first floor blew several feet from their original position, and the underground cabling that powers the first floor of H1 was destroyed.
There is some good news, however. We have found a way to get power to Phase 2 (upstairs, second floor) of the data center and to restore network connectivity. We will be powering up the air conditioning system and other necessary equipment within the next few hours. Once these systems are tested, we will begin bringing the 6,000 servers online. It will take four to five hours to get them all running.
We have brought in additional support from Dallas to have more hands and eyes on site to help with any servers that may experience problems. The call center has also brought in double staff to handle the increase in tickets we’re expecting. Hopefully by sunrise tomorrow Phase 2 will be well on its way to full production.
Let me next address Phase 1 (first floor) of the data center and the affected 3,000 servers. The news is not as good, and we were not as lucky. The damage there was far more extensive, and we have a bigger challenge that will require a two-step process. For the first step, we have designed a temporary method that we believe will bring power back to those servers sometime tomorrow evening, but the solution will be temporary. We will use a generator to supply power through next weekend when the necessary gear will be delivered to permanently restore normal utility power and our battery backup system. During the upcoming week, we will be working with those customers to resolve issues.
We know this may not be a satisfactory solution for you and your business but at this time, it is the best we can do.
We understand that you will be due service credits based on our Service Level Agreement. We will proactively begin providing those following the restoration of service, which is our number priority, so please bear with us until this has been completed.
I recognize that this is not all good news. I can only assure you we will continue to utilize every means possible to fully restore service.
I plan to have an audio update tomorrow evening.
Until then,
Douglas J. Erwin
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
I have one server back up but one server in the ‘phase 1′ section that is not due back up til this evening.
I have a feeling that they are not hopeful of getting these servers back up anytime this week – until the replacement parts they need arrive. If they could just plug in a generator, they would have done it by now…
I’m looking forward into the report about what caused the explosion. It looks like the ‘phase 1′ servers are the older legacy servers from their EV1 aquisition. Did they overload an older and outdated power supply room?
I have 5 servers on this datacenter.
Doesn’t sound very good at all, but at least they are making announcements.
Nice to see that there’s communication going on from the staff of The Planet to the users. I have seen hosts hiding their faces to even solve a small problem on the hosting account.
Yes the planet told everyone to go to the forums, but when you ask questions you get no answers and if you ask what some feel are the wrong questions one of the planets managers calling customers trolls. When I posted telling this manager it was sad to see a company manager calling customers trolls as anyone that has spent any time on the Internet knows calling someone a troll is getting close to using the “N” word with someone.
After I posted that it was sad, he banned me from posting anymore comments. I have yet to receive any contact from his bosses (I sent copies of the comment to all of them) so I can only assume that they are aware or feel the same way about the customer.
Folks systems fail, it is just how it is. But to then have the company call it’s customers trolls for asking about info related to the service that company is being paid to provide is just too much for me. I have moved my server and I know many who once they get the rest of their data from their servers will be gone as well. I feel the planet should know that for some of these folks the last straw was your manager calling the customers trolls.
In years to come when things are calmed down what will be remembered about this whole incident is how at a time of crisis the customer where called TROLLS by management.
In my opinion, ThePlanet is just another overly advertized overly bragging rip off organization lead by a ripoff CEO (Douglas Erwin). One of the worst places I have ever delt with. Find another provider.
Here is a link to the story about how Doug in accounting ripped me off. They promised a month of credit on December 1st, yet they charged my debit card on the 1st anyway. I was planning on quitting anyway, but waited to get the credit, that then never came.
The funny thing about the idiot Doug, a so called manager in accounting, is that he doesn’t realize I am a consultant and I recommend hosting companies all of the time. I am moving my clients one by one to other providers. So, far, I have setup three clients whose charges would have been about $200 a month each. So, they lost $7000 in revenue over $170.
If I were a sales person, I’d give Doug a piece of my mind. In the meantime, the Planet has the WORST up time of any provider in the country, period. There service is bad, so, I would look around, there are less expensive and much better providers. I’ve started using one out of San Jose, but believe me, there are MANY better places to trust with your business.
Link didn’t appear before, here it is:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/404/RipOff0404161.htm