State’s data centres struggle to weather heavy storm

Annavilaas in Jebel Ali Village, Dubai, is known across West Asia for its Indian delicacies. On December 5, however, visitors to the restaurant received an unexpected message from the managers: the hotel was unable to generate bills that day. The reason was also unusual — Cyclone Michaung had hit the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, causing the server in Chennai to go down due to floods.

When Business Standard called, the restaurant informed us that the problem was solved within hours, by Tuesday night. However, a cyclone in Chennai showing its colours in Dubai is an example of the state fast becoming a hub of data centres. Chennai has large data centre players such as NTT, CtrlS, and