Yeah I was surprised. Don't they have a ups for this kind of thing?
One application of this kind of product is chip fabs because they are so sensitive to power disruptions.
Whether Toshiba/WD had this type of system and if so, why it didn't prevent loss of product was not mentioned in the linked article. I have heard that there is a glut in chips for SSDs so a reason to cut production can't be ruled out. However it seems like Toshiba/WD would pay the price for this outage while their competitors would reap the benefits (unless the competition agreed to somehow share the cost.)
No it's not? Isn't that basically capitalism working as intended (in this rare case)?
One would think. Though, the tech industry is much like any other industry, and I imagine a conversation like this:
Engineer: We need to install backup generators in case the grid goes down.
Middle manager: Can you do it without stopping production?
Engineer: No.
Middle manager: Screw it. It's the next guy's problem.