That was probably their first mistake.

How so? This storm was a whopper. To the point that buoys were reporting waves 5 times taller than anything on record. Historically, Manhattan has been a fine place for a data center. Moreover, Peer1 survived the 2003 blackout, the only other recent event of this magnitude, without service disruption.

You can armchair quarterback this all you want, but unless you're actually making the decisions, perhaps you should consider the information available.

Well sure, and everything is fine until it isn't. It would be impossible for Manhattan to have any kind of Internet without peering and NAPs, but for hosting? I'll choose Nowheresville anytime, which I have done before.

I'm sure there are situations where you need to get someone to the DC quickly, so a Manhattan DC makes a lot of sense for an NYC based company. The current solution already worked the VAST majority of the time too. If they'd hosted it in central nowhere, people would criticize them for not planning appropriately for the times they need someone at the DC.

LOL I agree. There are a few small data center in Manhattan. Actually, if they choose data center like Amazon they may expect outrage once in a while....