Last week, an unprecedented winter storm wreaked havoc across Texas, leaving many without power and/or water for days.

While the experience was certainly harrowing, and not yet 100% over, one thing has shone clear through it all — resilience.

Across the Lone Star State, people came together to help one another. Family, friends, and neighbors offered up support and opened their doors for those most affected by the storm. Everyone shared what resources they had — whether few or many — to pull through best they could.

And just as the weather has bounced back, going from single digits to mid-70s in just a week, so will Texas continue to pull through this recovery period and come back stronger than before.

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For those of us here at Alert Logic, we weren’t immune to the effects of the weather last week, with a large portion of our workforce based in Texas. However, that same resilience and support exhibited across the state was also seen within our team — both in the US and overseas.

Taking our mission to heart

At the center of our core values, you’ll see the words customer obsessed.

That value alone embodies our mission to provide unrivaled security for our customers, 24/7. This of course requires resiliency during any crises, and I can attest to the commitment and passion our Security Operation Center (SOC) team exhibited throughout the Texas outages.

We are always watching.

Speaking for myself, I was completely in the dark last week, having lost both power and water and relying on one spot in my house for any cell reception. However, thanks to the resilience of the team, they ensured:

  • Zero service interruptions from the US to the UK
  • 100% SLA attainment throughout the storm
  • Stability with internal infrastructure

It was a humbling experience to see how those in our SOC stepped up to the plate, leaning on each other, with many working double shifts and late into the night, to make sure that our customers never went unprotected for a single moment.

The team maintained constant communication, immediately swapping places as rolling blackouts moved throughout Texas, and executing our existing business continuity plans flawlessly between those in the US and the UK. Everyone really worked together from the ground up, identifying and filling gaps, and all while maintaining compassion and empathy for those who were affected by the outages. Our leaders and analysts really took this challenge head on.

Resilience in a cloud-native infrastructure

While some of our customers were experiencing their own network degradation, they were always protected.

Our cloud-native infrastructure allowed us to ensure that, regardless of what happened, there was resilience in both the infrastructure and our business continuity plans and practices, ensuring that we never experienced any service interruptions.

And this is what we’re built for — to persist through any potential crisis and ensure that our customers can focus on their priorities, knowing we have their back. This has been our mindset from the beginning, the reason why our customers and partners depend on us, and this past week only exemplified that commitment present in our team.

To the Alert Logic team, and especially those in the SOC, I thank you for your hard work and compassion during a trying time for those of us in Texas. And to my fellow Texans, even though the snow and ice are now gone, we will continue to be resilient in working through the aftermath and come out the other side stronger than before.

Fortra's Alert Logic
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Fortra's Alert Logic

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