Designed for the Unexpected: How Modern Data Centers Maintain Resilience

More often than data center managers might like, surprises can befall otherwise routine days. External factors, third-party activity, and infrastructure that lives beyond your direct control all introduce risk, sometimes in ways no one intends.

For example, recent external excavation work inadvertently impacted critical utilities serving a facility.

While utility locates are typically performed ahead of excavation, even when proper procedures are followed, errors can occur. Inaccurate or incomplete locate information is a known industry risk, and it’s one every Operations Leader hopes they never have to contend with. But experience tells us these scenarios aren’t theoretical; they’re part of operating complex infrastructure in the real world.

So, when it happens, the question isn’t “how could this occur?”

It’s “what happens next?”

What matters most in these moments is not the failure itself, but how the organization is able to respond based on how prepared it was for the unexpected.

Plan for When, Not If

Unexpected utility strikes are among the most challenging failure scenarios to design around. They originate outside your four walls, involve third parties, and often bypass carefully controlled maintenance windows and change processes.

In this case, a live power feed serving the facility was impacted during external excavation activity despite required pre-work having been completed. Even so, the outcome was exactly what disciplined design and operations are meant to deliver.

Data center operations were maintained with zero customer impact and without exceeding designed redundancy boundaries. That outcome was not the result of luck, nor was it achieved by an act of heroics. It was the product of preparation.

Why This Was Non-Impactful

When incidents like this remain non-events from a customer perspective, it’s because multiple layers are working together as designed.

Architecturally, the facility operates as a true Tier III data center, with independently maintainable power paths and physical diversity built to withstand real-world failure scenarios, not just theoretical ones.

Operationally, incident management was activated immediately. Roles and decision authority were clear, situational awareness was established quickly, and execution remained calm and structured. There was no scramble for escalation and no ambiguity around responsibility.

Once the situation was understood, coordination with external parties and remediation efforts proceeded deliberately. The focus remained on restoring the affected infrastructure safely without introducing secondary risk through rushed decisions.

At a practical level, this meant:

• Established runbooks were followed without deviation
• Teams operated from practiced response patterns rather than improvisation
• Remediation was completed in a controlled manner with no customer impact

This was not a single control doing its job. It was architecture, process, and people reinforcing one another under stress.

Accidents Happen, but Accountability Matters

Resilience does not make incidents acceptable, nor does it reduce the importance of prevention. Accurate utility locates, strong third-party coordination, and proactive risk management remain critical.

Following the event, root cause analysis was conducted, corrective actions were identified, and follow-up occurred with the involved parties. Resilience is not permission to tolerate failure. It is the ability to absorb failure without compounding it while corrections are put in place.

What This Reinforces

Scenarios like this reinforce lessons that are easy to agree with in theory but only fully appreciated in practice.

Redundancy only matters if teams understand how to operate within it. Incident management is as critical as physical infrastructure. Calm, disciplined execution consistently outperforms perfect documentation. And teams that practice together respond very differently than teams that rely on plans alone.

Most importantly, resilience is not the result of a single design decision. It is the cumulative outcome of architecture, process, and people working together over time.

Failure is a Choice

You don’t get to choose when the unexpected happens. You only get to choose whether your systems and teams are prepared when they do.

Incidents like this are reminders, not anomalies, of why disciplined design and operations matter.