Unless there is some sort of crazy story related to why a service
provider
could not keep the lights on, this should have not been an issue with proper operations and engineering.
I'll let others tell you about the rat that caused a short circuit when Stanford attempted to switch to backup power. Or the time that fire crews told staff to evacuate a Wiltel colo near San Jose because of a backhoe that broke a gas pipe. The staff were prevented from starting their backup generators after power to the neighborhood was cut. In my opinion, the only way to solve this problem is to locate colos and PoPs in clusters within a city and deliver resilient DC power to these clusters from a central redundant generator plant. The generator plants, transmission lines and clusters can be engineered for resiliency. And then the highly flammable and dangerous quantities of fuel can be localized in a generator plant where they can be kept a safe distance from residential and office buildings. Unfortunately, to do this sort of thing requires vision which is something that has been lacking in the network operations field of late. --Michael Dillon