At some point early next week, the Electrical Inspector and Fire Department we will be testing our EPO (Emergency Power Off) and FM200 Fire Suppression systems. This is one of the final hurdles to getting the new facility officially blessed and ready for production. We will post exact times prior to, and photos of the event shortly after.

EPOs at colocation facilities have seen some news and discussion lately. But it serves to bring up an issue of relevance to digital.forest. We have no plans to allow "un-escorted" or "card-key" access to our new facility. We will always escort clients and visitors while they are in our colocation area. As much as we love and trust our clients, we also know that human beings are fallible and curious. "What does this button do?" is not something you want being answered by a curious push. We have cameras in our datacenter, but they can not prevent an event, only record it... at least up to the moment the EPO gets pushed.

EPOs are required by law for human safety in facilities where large amounts of electricity, and backup power systems exist. Common sense, in the form of knowledgeable staff escorting visitors is the only way to ensure that serious accidents do not happen.

We have always felt that service is what distinguishes us from the competition. While many consider unrestricted access a service benefit, we consider it a liability as it offers no protection from EPO-related outages, be they deliberate or accidental. We hope you understand this perspective and share our view.