If your favorite web service or site has been down over the weekend, or is still down today, chances are that it's due to an explosion in major web host The Planet's H1 data center. Yes, we said explosion. The damage is massive, and 6,000 servers went down because of it. The incident happened two days ago, and some of the problems still aren't fully resolved yet. Here's the quick rundown by Douglas J. Erwin, The Planet's CEO:
"While no customer servers have been damaged or lost, we have new information that damage to our H1 data center is worse than initially expected. Three walls of the electrical equipment room on the first floor blew several feet from their original position, and the underground cabling that powers the first floor of H1 was destroyed.
There is some good news, however. We have found a way to get power to Phase 2 (upstairs, second floor) of the data center and to restore network connectivity. We will be powering up the air conditioning system and other necessary equipment within the next few hours. Once these systems are tested, we will begin bringing the 6,000 servers online. It will take four to five hours to get them all running."
Among the affected sites are, for example, Thebarbook.com, as well as Croatian photo sharing service Pticica.com (which has already been brought back up).