Provider That Survived Katrina Exits New Orleans

After keeping its New Orleans data center online throughout Hurricane Katrina, online backup service provider Data Protection Services (DPS) has moved to central Louisiana, citing difficult business conditions in New Orleans. DPS said today that it has completed its move to its new facility in Hammond, LA, and closed all of its operations in New Orleans.

Data Protection Services was one of three companies that continued operating throughout Katrina from a facility on the 10th and 11th floors of 650 Poydras Street, along with DirectNIC/InterCosmos and I-55. Michael Barnett of DirectNIC live-blogged the company's experience during the hurricane, gaining worldwide media attention. I-55 has since been sold to XfoneUSA, but DirectNIC continues to operate in New Orleans.

Jeff Danos, CEO of DPS, said he was proud of the company's performance during the hurricane, but decided shortly after the storm to leave the city. "Our people in the New Orleans area were not spared from the disaster, yet they continued to carry out their jobs under extremely challenging conditions," said Danos. "We had discussed purchasing and designing a new facility for a while. Hurricane Katrina was the force that made the decision easy, and it's really exciting to be in a facility custom designed for delivering our business clients the ultimate in safe, secure backup and storage."

Last summer DPS opened a new data center in Atlanta, and moved some of the remaining New Orleans operations into temporary quarters outside the city. But the company said the temporary facility could not accommodate all the equipment from the Poydras site. This month DPS opened a new data center in Hammond, a university town located in central Louisiana with an average elevation of 100 feet above sea level, which is served by major highway systems.

It's not the only data center to look for an out of town location after the storm. The city of New Orleans has made arrangements for a backup data center in Austin, Texas, which was developed in conjunction with government officials in Austin.

"An online backup company is built on continuous operation, so insuring our clients were not affected required that the transition be a gradual one," added Danos, "but we are now totally in our new facility and have shut down New Orleans completely. Atlanta and Hammond are now our primary storage centers, and we couldn't be happier with how things have worked out."