On Friday morning, a power outage at a third-party data center caused a “blackout” that affected numerous companies, including Hawaiian Airlines, Bank of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Health, Queens Medical Center, and Star Advertiser. DRFortress co-founder Rosa White didn’t reveal the exact number of companies that were affected, but she said that “some” of its customers experienced internet outages due to “maintenance issues” during the company’s “maintenance.” White apologized for the impact on affected customers and their customers.
Hawaiian Airlines had to suspend flights from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Friday, resulting in “substantial delays.” Tara Shimooka, the external communications manager of Hawaiian Airlines, stated that due to the space constraints at Kahului Airport, two flights from the West Coast to Kahului were diverted to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. She clarified that the internet outage had nothing to do with the passenger service system transition. However, flight safety wasn’t affected, she assured.
DRFortress serves several privately held local businesses, including Bank of Hawaii, Queens Medical Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, and Star Advertiser. In a statement, Melissa Torres Lyne, the senior vice president of corporate communications at Bank of Hawaii, confirmed that the bank had experienced temporary service disruption and that branches, ATMs, and call centers were unaffected. Meanwhile, Sean Ibarra, a Queens spokesperson, said that although some internal services were temporarily impacted, patient safety wasn’t affected, either.
Hawaii Pacific Health reported that the power outage had caused a “temporary loss of IT systems,” but contingency plans allowed for continued treatment. Once the system was back online, the HPH team confirmed everything and resumed normal workflow.
According to its website, DRFortress is the largest and only carrier-neutral data center and cloud marketplace operating in Hawaii. The company claims to have the densest IP carriers and networks in Hawaii, which is also an exchange.