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Data Center Flood Captured By Security Cam 66

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-mop dept.
miller60 writes "Torrential rains last week in Istanbul led to a flood that overwhelmed a data center for Vodafone. The event was captured on the data center security cameras, which shows waters rising and then raging through the security area before flooding the raised-floor equipment area."

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Data Center Flood Captured By Security Cam More

Data Center Flood Captured By Security Cam

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  • Looks like somebody forgot to empty the bit bucket!
  • talk about a flood attack..

  • Now featureing (Score:3, Funny)

    by TornCityVenz ( 1123185 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @06:58PM (#29447797) Homepage Journal
    Vodaphone Istanbul now features water cooled servers!

  • It's funny 'cause... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BeneathTheVeil ( 305107 ) on Wednesday September 16, 2009 @07:41PM (#29448247) Journal

    "voda" means water in a few languages.

  • Ooozing sympathy ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RockDoctor ( 15477 ) on Thursday September 17, 2009 @05:45AM (#29451675) Journal

    Leaving aside that this looks like a pretty anonymous security desk/ reception area which could fron any sort of business, not just a data centre, the important point is, "what a fucking stupid place to build anything".

    You can see from the window that this sort of flooding is nothing to be surprised at. The water is rising slowly and there's little apparent current, which implies that the site is a fair distance from the source of the rising river. Odds on, this is not a "flash flood", but a perfectly normal flood on the flood plain of a river.
    Rivers flood ; they flood onto their flood plains ; floods can be avoided by the simple process of not being where the water ends up. I.E. don't stay on flood plains when there's significant rainfall.

    OK, so people who have brought property on flood plains don't like this because they're going to lose money ; a lot of money. But that's their own fault for being so stupid as to invest in property on a flood plain.

    No fucking sympathy at all. Let the stupid bastards drown as they go bankrupt.

    I was on holiday recently in Mallorca, and also looking at photos of other firend's holidays in Spain. Where other people see a nice wide park area running through the middle of a town, with a tiny stream in a broad concrete channel, they see a public park. But I see a flood channel designed to take flash flooding. Same landscape, different perceptions.

    Last month, we had the worst local rainfall for over 30 years (I've only lived here for 26 years). The rain was hammering down solidly for nearly 3 days ; the ignition leads in my car started complaining. And the drains outside my house overflowed ... and the water ran away downhill to cause flooding on the flood plain at the bottom of the hill. Well, that was a really difficult decision for me to make when I was house hunting, and it's paid off time and again already.

    Learn some basic geography ; look at the shape of the landscape determined by the average climate of the last few thousand years. Then apply what you've learned and let someone else suffer the flooding.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Leaving aside that this looks like a pretty anonymous security desk/ reception area which could fron any sort of business

      It is clearly not in America - there are no supersized tubs of lard in shot.

    • I largely agree. When we moved to Texas, my wife wanted a house by a creek. Everything we looked at was built above the flood line, but by quick inspection I could see which houses were going to be undermined by repeated flooding of their creeks. (For some houses the "upper" backyards were already peeling away.)

      Once we moved into a place (with a very solid retaining wall just where it needs to be) I had to convince my wife that we shouldn't put in benches or swing sets in the "lower" back yard. She thou

      • by quick inspection I could see which houses were going to be undermined by repeated flooding of their creeks

        It is not exactly rocket surgery, is it? Or even "brain science".

        • It is not exactly rocket surgery, is it? Or even "brain science".

          Indeed, it is not. And so, as politically incorrect as it may be, I sometimes question the wisdom of rebuilding a city that is largely below the water line of a huge river.

          • And so, as politically incorrect as it may be, I sometimes question the wisdom of rebuilding a city that is largely below the water line of a huge river.

            What's politically incorrect about it?
            I can see that it would be politically incorrect to say that it's stupid to rebuild this city but not stupid to rebuild that city, when the only significant difference is the countries that they're in.
            So, as a geologist (not that that matters much), I've always been happy to snort contempt at the London Barrage, and I s

            • I've always gota good laugh about the flooding along the Ohio River. It happens to some extent somewhere along the river every freaking year. Yet the news would always make a big deal about it washing away a bunch of trailer homes that were stupidly placed right on the bank of the river.

              • Yet the news would always make a big deal about it washing away a bunch of trailer homes that were stupidly placed right on the bank of the river.

                I feel the sympathy that you ooze. Have you found a good viewpoint where you can park up, crack a few tinnies and observe the bedraggled evacuees from a position of calculated safety? Free entertainment.
                Hey - an investment opportunity : find such a site, buy the appropriate few 10s of sq.m, then charge rental for the film crews when they come along.
                What's the rest

                • Other methods of making profit:
                  1. Charge reservations. Want a dedicated spot for your film crew when the floods happen next year? Pay me $x
                  2. Charge for advertising space. Want to advertise your construction business? Pay me $x

                  • Other methods of making profit:
                    1. Charge reservations. Want a dedicated spot for your film crew when the floods happen next year? Pay me $x
                    2. Charge for advertising space. Want to advertise your construction business? Pay me $x

                    You're clearly a lot more experienced than me at this ruthless capitalism lark. Would you like some freshly-sliced peon with your paupers-blood cocktail?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pyrion ( 525584 ) *

      Or at very least, don't build your data center on the ground floor in an area prone to flooding.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by KORfan ( 524397 )

      I beg to differ on the current. If you look at the buildup of the water on the door and window supports, it looks like there's at least half a foot of pileup due to water velocity. There are some pulsating waves so you know it's not just head difference between inside and outside. That water appears to be moving a couple of feet per second, especially after the breakthroughs. It's not a seeping flood, they're getting real velocity.

      I don't think I've ever heard of flood water velocity as a measure of dis

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pjtp ( 533932 )

      Leaving aside that this looks like a pretty anonymous security desk/ reception area ...

      I take it you didn't watch the entire clip. Jump to near the end and you can see the feed from a different camera. This one covers the actual data centre.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Isn't it funny how everyone wants the best property, but only some people end up having it?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dkone ( 457398 )

      Seriously, did you watch the first 10 seconds of the video and come to your conclusion based on the fact that your car got rained on? You can see water rushing into the room from the hall. This is inside a building, I can't imagine how fast the water must have been moving outside.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by BountyX ( 1227176 )
      I respectfully disagree. This is not a case and their data center was NOT on flood plains. That area of Istanbul is NOT prone to flooding. Furthermore, it was the heaviest rainfall in the last 8 decades [yahoo.com]. That section of Istanbul is even on top of an elevated slope [kappa.com.tr] (compared to the rest of the city). This is primarily a case of outdated infrastructure throughout the city. Istanbul is one of the oldest cities in the world. They still have roman-built brick elevated roads they rely on for water draining. Upgra

      • I respectfully disagree. This is not a case and their data center was NOT on flood plains. That area of Istanbul is NOT prone to flooding.

        It sounds as if you know the area well enough to have identified it - I don't recall the original article having enough information to locate it more precisely than "Istanbul", at which point I only have a very vague idea of the topography.
        So, there's something more complex going on in this particular case than simply being sited in a flood plain - which does nothing to m

        • Some additional points;

          I fortunately do not live near to that flood area but the place was on my way from home to work. I was lucky that my car was diesel during the event, otherwise it was very possible to stuck in sub floods feeding the main "river" that materialized. Aside from political bickering between municipality officers and all related offices, that area IS IN a valley. Albeit it is not a deep one and it is higher than most of surrounding area, valleys are by definition prune to be flooded. That

          • Aside from political bickering between municipality officers and all related offices, that area IS IN a valley. Albeit it is not a deep one and it is higher than most of surrounding area, valleys are by definition prune to be flooded.

            So ... detecting that a location is in a valley is ... rocket science? Difficult?

            That is why river deltas are very favorable agricultural areas.

            An excellent place to put flooding-tolerant crops. Data centres are not, to the best of my knowledge, flooding-tolerant crops.

            My point

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by umghhh ( 965931 )
      well this may be but it may also be that people got building permission to build in normally dried river beds and when the big rain came then water did not have any place to go but raised above the level it would normally raise to which means morons that build in the river plains and river beds as in Istambul should be held accountable for what they did.

      • which means morons that build in the river plains and river beds as in Istambul should be held accountable for what they did.

        Some degree of culpability - quite a lot - attaches to the morons who do not do due diligence before buying (or leasing) premises. Of course, if more of the morons refused to buy such shit, then fewer people would try such scams, because they'd know they might get stuck with an unsalable lemon ...
        Oh, who're we trying to kid? Idiots will continue to lose large amounts of money and occa

  • Man, that was boring. No sea-monsters attacking unsuspecting techs and no tidal waves toppling racks of computers. I think there should be something to balance the ax-murder scene. Don't you?

    • Ohhh DUUUUDE, it would be so fucking awesome if there were sea monsters in that video.... OR SHARKS... that would be sweeeewweeeeeeettt!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by artg ( 24127 )
        There's a seal (a SEAL ?) swims though at 3:10 - 3:20. And Nessie's visible between 5:00 and 5:10.

  • Don't worry

    Its standard procedure when dealing with 'lp0 printer on fire!' errors

  • Ok who dropped a cherry bomb in the toilet at the data center?

  • Furniture (Score:3, Funny)

    by kylben ( 1008989 ) on Sunday September 20, 2009 @11:29PM (#29487315) Homepage
    Ikea office furniture floats. Noted for future reference.

  • I think the funniest part of that video is at 5:25 where the cabinet falls over that the guy had tried putting things on top of earlier to save them...

    • I think the funniest part of that video is at 5:25 where the cabinet falls over that the guy had tried putting things on top of earlier to save them...

      I started laughing when he was trying to save the contents of what looks like a cash drawer, but ends up dumping the thing over in the water. It just needed the yackety sax music from Benny Hill dubbing over it.

  • Anyone catch 8:10? The cabinet in the lower-left corner glows blue for a moment! - maybe something out of the cameras direct field of vision, something electrical, just "popped"? !!?
  • The location is probably Google Maps: Vodaphone Ikitelli Istanbul Turkey [google.com]. A news report [hurriyetdailynews.com] says the Ikitelli district was flooded and Vodaphone was affected. Similarly, in Google Earth searching for "Vodaphone Turkey Ikitelli" takes you to that location, next to the 34-25 highway...with the right options turned on you'll see an "i" icon labeled Vodaphone.

    Move the cursor around the highway's region and watch the altitude info in Google Earth and you'll see the highway is a low point. The flood followed the

  • That's a bad day for Vodafone. I wouldn't want to see the millions in damage that little incident caused

    • I wouldn't mind seeing it. Just not paying the bill. Also, if it is anything like the US they just made it on a 'do not insure' list...

  • Error "GOD": Server Under Water.

  • Water + Electricity = Death. Try to remember that if you ever find yourself in a similar situation!
    • Yeah. And CRTs have high voltages involved (30kV-ish). LCD's with certain types of backlights do, too (but less high - 1kV-ish).

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