AIKEN, S.C. - In a first for EM, the Savannah River Site (SRS) has partnered with DOE’s Office of Science to host emergency data recovery capabilities at the Oak Ridge Site.
SRS management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) is responsible for the SRS information technology mission, overseeing primary and backup data centers within the site. DOE and SRNS recently decided that off-site backup is preferred to a prior policy calling for no data to leave the site.
“There was a concern that with our primary and backup data centers located on site about eight miles apart, a natural disaster or other catastrophic event could in fact impact both data centers," SRNS Chief Information Officer Jeff Krohn said. “We worked with the Department to identify a couple of locations in Oak Ridge. It’s an optimal location because it’s far enough away from SRS to meet our needs but it’s also drivable from the site."
The DOE Savannah River Operations Office signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office of Science to enable the partnership. The data center managed by the Office of Science and Technical Information (OSTI) in Oak Ridge hosts copies of the applications for disaster recovery at SRS.
“We were very impressed with the OSTI facility," Krohn said. “They were a good fit because they have had more experience with multiple tenants, could provide the physical separation we needed for our dedicated servers and were ready to go from a bandwidth perspective. It was a great match for our needs."
Employees moved the data to the OSTI center over eight months in 2016. SRNS then tested the system and reported a successful transition.
“We are proud of this partnership with the Office of Science to make our data more secure and provide further protection against unforeseen events," Krohn said.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
