Winter Storm Juno: How Are Northeast-Based Cloud Services Providers Holding Up?

With Winter Storm Juno making its way to the Northeast (it’s already here), many of us at Penton Technology are hoping for no widespread power outages — otherwise you might not hear from us too often. We aren’t as prepared for blizzards as many of the cloud services providers (CSPs) located in the same region. Come to think of it: How are some of these CSPs handling the storm?

Every CSP gives the same line about storm preparation: Always be ready. While this is a great motto to live by (and good news for channel partners), it doesn’t give us at Talkin’ Cloud much to write about, so instead of providing channel partners with storm preparation tips, we’re going to relay any updates we hear from CSPs with data centers in Blizzard Juno’s way.

Here’s what we’ve learned. (Last Update: 1:50 P.M. EST on 1/27/2015.)

LogMeIn — The SaaS and cloud-based remote connectivity services provider is still going strong, despite its Boston office being closed today, a spokesperson told Talkin’ Cloud. The spokesperson added that the company’s employees are “operational and have simply moved into virtual mode.”

“With tens of millions of people using our products every day, we expect people to collaborate and work from home during this storm,” the spokesperson said. “We connect millions of people worldwide on a daily basis, so we’re prepared no matter how much wind and snow the storm throws at us.”

Kaseya — With an office in Waltham, Massachusetts, the IT management cloud company tweeted out that its staying toasty and “making it possible for the #MSP & #ITDepartment to manage #IT remotely during #Snowmageddon2015.”

Cloud Nation — The Pinebrook, New Jersey-based cloud desktop solutions provider is “humming along,” said Steve Forman, the company’s CEO, via Twitter.

Intronis — A spokesperson told Talkin’ Cloud that this Boston-based online backup solutions provider is in “regular contact with its data center’s operations staff in the Northeast and expects no ill effects from the winter storm bearing down on them.”

According to the spokesperson, Intronis’ data centers have experienced no down time or service interruptions in prior “snowmageddon-like events.”

Carbonite — This Boston-based cloud backup solutions provider has a data center in Wakefield, Massachusetts, where the company just finished consolidating all of its data from the Northeast.

Click here for Talkin’ Cloud’s Top 100 CSP list

Carbonite Senior Director of Datacenter Operations Brion L’Heureu told Talkin’ Cloud that when you’re running data centers you’re always ready for something expected to happen.

“That said, when there’s a storm of this magnitude, we are regularly briefed by our data center partners on backup fuel deliveries, emergency precautions and any threats that could impact connectivity,” he said.

Datto — Located in Norwalk, Connecticut, this backup and disaster recovey (BDR) and business continuity solutions provider told Talkin’ Cloud that it’s technical support management team has been meeting reguarly since Saturday to discuss preparedness and business continuity planning.

Tech support is fully staffed, and if they can’t get into work, they’ll be working from home, a spokesperson said. Employees who are already at the office are ready to sleepover if it comes down to it. (Don’t worry, they did a Costco run and have food for two days.) The regulary overnight staff will be working from home.

The spokesperson said all non-essential meetings have been cancelled and we are focusing on our readiness.

If you’d like to provide Talkin’ Cloud with an update on how you’re handling Blizzard Juno, send Talkin’ Cloud Executive Editor CJ Arlotta an email at cj.arlotta”at”penton.com.

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above — or if you just want to say hello.