Interview with Yvonne Donaldson of The Planet
June 5, 2008
Many of you know I have been following the explosion and electrical fire at The Planet’s H1 data center in Houston. I originally posted a link from Allen Stern who had reported the following:
- Electrical transformer explosion at ThePlanet’s Houston datacenter.
- 3 walls knocked down - but servers are ok
- Backup generators cannot be started due to fire safety concerns
- 9000 servers affected - over 7,500 customers.
- Countless third party services affected by outage
Subsequent to that post I received tweets, IM and email from customers initially asking me questions and eventually giving me information. Quickly I began hearing crazy speculation (i.e. it was the FBI, it was aliens or something even more sinister). Earlier today Yvonne Donaldson, The Planet’s director of public relations, called me to talk about my ‘coverage’ of the incident. Yvonne is a Louisiana State University graduate with a degree in Sociology. She worked for Compaq from 91-97 in the PR department and got back in the PR game in 2006 when she began working for The Planet. I asked Yvonne if she used Twitter, but she indicated she did not. Yvonne explained she hadn’t slept in 24+ hours and I was appreciative she took the time to give me a call. I had no idea she read my blog!
Yvonne wasn’t too pleased with me, suggesting that she would have expected better. I suggested that I suspected some of the rumors and speculation surrounding the explosion and subsequent electrical fire were perhaps caused by their various competitors. She suggested that Softlayer might be the cause of more than a few, but I told her I wasn’t willing to disclose by sources (I need to get one of those reporter hats). I tried to get her to clear up a few things, including:
WHY NO PHOTOS?: My advice to her was that by publishing a few pictures of the affected area she could dis-spell 99% of the of the rumors and speculation. Yyonne simply said she didn’t know why The Planet was unwilling to publish photos of the damage. I asked her if she could find out why they were unwilling and she told me “all I can say is that I don’t know.” She then told me with 80 people working there wasn’t room in the facility for someone with a camera to even take photos. She concluded that “there really isn’t that much to see.” I repeated the question, “Well, if there isn’t much to see, what would be the harm in publishing a few pictures?” She responded, “I don’t know.” Many of the customers I have talked to can’t understand what The Planet is hiding by keeping them out of the facility and refusing to publish video or pictures.
80 EMPLOYEES ONSITE, REALLY?: I then asked her how many employees were working to get the facility back up and running. She indicated 80 people were onsite. I then suggested that customers (with video cameras) had reported that only 3 or 4 cars were in the H1 parking lot overnight and only 2 or 3 in the H2 parking lot (and they weren’t clown cars). She sounded surprised and said, “Well, that is what I have been told.” Many of the frustrated customers have used this 80 employee number as proof The Planet hasn’t been honest with them.
CONCLUSION: There was an electrical fire. The employees of The Planet are tired, stressed out and upset. The PR folks don’t know why management won’t allow them to publish photos. The PR folks are just reporting what management is telling them and have no control over whether or not they are being told the truth. Are there 8 people or 80 people working round the clock? It doesn’t really matter does it? Whether or not clients are being told the truth is the only thing that really matters. I think that is the lesson to be learned here. My previous coverage below:
Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Update 6/5/08 8:47PM
Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Update 6/4/08 5:01PM
Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Update 6/4/08 10:00AM
Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Update 6/3/08
Houston Data Center Fire and Explosion Update 6/1/08
Yvonne suggested that anyone with specific questions should simple call her at 281.714.3602.
