Could Extreme Weather Take Down the Internet?

STORM IN THE CLOUD:- Hurricanes are already powerful forces of nature, but the strength of these storms may only continue to escalate. WHAT WOULD Could a Hurricane Take Down the Internet? HAPPEN IF A HUGE STORM FORCE WERE TO COLLIDE WITH MAJOR CLOUD SERVERS, AN INTEGRAL PART OF OUR INTERNET CAPACITY? Here's a look at the cause and effect of the worst-case scenario. When considering ALL OF AMAZON's CLOUD CENTERS across the U.S., a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF DATA COMES INTO PLAY, Netflix P Pinterest In three months alone. O It was reported that AMAZON'S Pinterest HOSTS ABOUT 20 MILLION S3 CLOUD STORED 762 billion objects in 2011.«. 3.5 MILLION subscribers viewed MEDIA DAILY ACTIVE USERS. THROUGH NETFLIX. O tis possible Amazon's cloud holds 1% OF THE ENTIRE INTERNET. Reddit Instagram Reddit reached 100,000 Instagram has over >80 MILLION REGISTERED USERS. O Some MAJOR SITES WOULD unique VISITORS AT ONE TIME in January 2012. BE IMPACTED if the AMAZON CLOUD WERE TO GO DOWN, including: RACKSPACE has been speculated to hold about 10% of the OF THE MARKET). market (SECOND TO AMAZON'S POTENTIAL O More than 180,000 businesses STORE DATA ON RACKSPACE CLOUD SERVERS. O The company WORKS WITH 40% of the FORTUNE 100 COMPANIES. VIRGINIA, where MAJOR CLOUD CENTERS are located for both Amazon and Rackspace, ISN'T IN THE CLEAR WHEN IT COMES TO MAJOR STORMS. Some projections estimate that 3 HURRICANES that hit the state > 12 HURRICANES GREENHOUSE WARMING between 2003 and 2004 resulted in can cause STORM INTENSITY directly hit the state of Virginia between 1851 and 2009. the DAMAGE OR DESTRUCTION of TO INCREASE 2-11% 1,400 BUSINES SES. by 2100. CONCLUSION With the USE OF CLOUD STORAGE GROWING ALONG WITH THE STRENGTH OF STORMS, a collision of these two forces could result in some MAJOR CONSEQUENCES. Thankfully, many cloud computing companies take security seriously, BUT SHOULD THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO OCCUR, it could be EXTREMELY DETRIMENTAL FOR THE STATE OF ONLINE DATA. SOURCE : http://slashdot.org/topic/cloud/could-extreme-weather-take-down-the-internet/