The lights went out on several World Wide Web sites Friday when a major power outage hit Stanford University.
The blackout sent ripples throughout the country because many Silicon Valley-area businesses hook up to the global communications network through Stanford’s computer system.
The batteries for the university’s computer backup system weren’t adequate, said Marisa Cigarroa, Stanford University’s spokeswoman. The outage occurred at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and lasted until midnight. The system came up for a few hours, then went down again. It was still out late Friday afternoon.
The power outage occurred after a 12,000-volt power switch failed at Stanford’s cogeneration power plant. The university is still investigating what caused the switch to fail, Cigarroa said.
The Stanford shutdown illustrated how fragile the Internet remains even as it continues to grow as a major communications medium for businesses and consumers.
The blackout slowed the pace of business for some South Florida companies, who were unable to get information from news and business sites Friday. Business on the Net halted for thousands of people in Northern California. The power outage hit BBN Planet, one of the country’s largest providers of managed Internet access and Web-site development for companies such as ITT Sheraton, Los Angeles Times and Sun Microsystems as well as the U.S. Senate. The outage did not affect BBN’s nationwide network. It primarily affected 400 customers in Northern California – mostly high-tech and communications companies, said Peter Thonis, BBN spokesman.
“Obviously, we’re always concerned when people who are doing important things on the Internet don’t have access to it,” Thonis said.
In addition to the University of Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley also experienced some Internet access problems because it connects to Stanford. The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Franciso Examiner also experienced information blackouts.
