Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center

[n2doc]

Chronic electrical surges at the massive new data-storage facility central to the National Security Agency's spying operation have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and delayed the center's opening for a year, according to project documents and current and former officials.


There have been 10 meltdowns in the past 13 months that have prevented the NSA from using computers at its new Utah data-storage center, slated to be the spy agency's largest, according to project documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

One project official described the electrical troubles—so-called arc fault failures—as "a flash of lightning inside a 2-foot box." These failures create fiery explosions, melt metal and cause circuits to fail, the official said.

The causes remain under investigation, and there is disagreement whether proposed fixes will work, according to officials and project documents. One Utah project official said the NSA planned this week to turn on some of its computers there.

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http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwNzEwNDcyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email

[denverbill]

1. Gosh how awful. /sarcasm

Thank God this program seems to be spared from the govt shutdown.

[City Lights]

2. Oh dear, what a shame!

Not!

[leveymg]

3. This isn't really plausible. Not like the hardware of a server farm is experimental technology.

Last edited Tue Oct 8, 2013, 07:25 PM - Edit history (1)

The whole system is modular and scalable. Power draw per server rack(s) attached to each circuit box is all fixed and well-known. The circuit boxes are off-the-shelf items that have been used in many similar applications. If they designed this in an unconventional way or are using some sort of untested equipment, they shouldn't be surprised to see the project set back, significantly.

There's something else going on that probably has more to do with policy uncertainty or with in-fighting between the agency, contractors, and appointees within DoD or the Administration. Or else, this is just another huge scam, like the Trailblazer Project.

[hootinholler]

4. I have to agree this isn't rocket science

Perhaps an electrical contractor was cutting corners?

It doesn't make sense really.

[leveymg]

5. "Policy uncertainty" or fraud. Has to be one or the other, unless they're using parts bought

second-hand from Iran.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Well..whatever....is good to hear this.

I hve not been impressed with the over all inelligence of the last few adminsitrations as a whole.
Maybe dumbing down the country was not such a good idea.

[leveymg]

9. Now, if there was some safe way to coax us into giving up all those handguns . . .

Last edited Tue Oct 8, 2013, 08:47 PM - Edit history (1)

We're far more of a lethal threat to ourselves than any foreign power or terrorist group might be.

The NSA has to have the highest cost/benefit ratio of any law enforcement or military program in history. What have they actually caught during the past decade, like two people who actually set out to do some harm who weren't just set up by the FBI?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Between this and healthcare.gov they're not very good at this high-tech thing, are they.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. This is known territory. So what is this, purposeful incompetence?

infighting? What?

That said, it might be simply our current model of contracting, the cheapest bidder, who has no idea how to do this.

That said, keep it up. In fact, shut it down.