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Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Video

June 4, 2008

Update: Interview with Yvonne Donaldson of The Planet.

I have received more than hundred emails/IMs/Tweets with different theories/ stories/ ideas/ suggestions/ guesses/ jokes about what ACTUALLY happened at The Planet this weekend. Some of you think I have the scoop; really I am VERY sure I don’t have any idea what ACTUALLY happened, but it is a great case study on how providing no hard (camera phone/phone video) evidence of your story can really hurt you in this day and age. People are quick to assume that there must be a reason there isn’t a SINGLE photo of the explosion/fire area. There are pictures of EVERYTHING, but not a single picture of the actual incident. One or two quick pictures would settle the whole thing, instead The Planet is staying mum.

Security and secrecy around the apparent explosion and fire at The Planet’s H1 data center in Houston is very tight, but a reader of our blog (Rodney Giles, CEO of Eleven2) decided to see what was going on for himself and posted this

The guys who took the video are clients of The Planet and have their own hosting business housed on servers they rent from The Planet. Their company is called Eleven2hosting. The Planet should be taking their own photos as well as video for their 9,000 affected clients. Instead they are threatening their clients with trespass!

Here are some photos of of the outside of the building by PrisonTalk:

Thanks to Eleven2 for helping us out, here is a brief blurb from their profile:

We’re designers, developers, musicians, movie makers, business owners, writers, photographers, and oh so much more. We are just like each one of you. In 2004, out of a dire need for a company who actually cared more about their customers and their world than they did about being the company that cared solely about its dividends, eleven2 was birthed. Somewhere between 2004 and now, eleven2 grew from the brainstorm of two designers/programmers to a company that services over 60,000 domains, but not by traditional advertising. Eleven2 has grown strictly by word-of-mouth through a pure grassroots-style effort. In 2007, eleven2 came to a moment of rebirth. What you see now and what you will see in weeks to come is great evidence that eleven2 is here to stay, and also, it is here to inspire change by finding ways to not only meet the needs of our customers but also the needs of people around the world.
For more info, please visit us at eleven2.com.

Age: 24

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