Server room with seismic isolation floor in Japan earthquake disaster [video]
I visited a couple of DCs in Tokyo, and the tours systematically feature a look at the anti-seismic system. It's actually pretty unimpressive : basically the seismic-protected part of the building is mounted on big rubber dampers, with some huge pistons thrown in for active attenuation. In taller buildings (I visited a DC with around 20 stories IIRC) the stories are not rigidly connected together, so that instead of swaying (and possibly toppling) during an earthquake, the building just kind of wobbles.<p>Very effective though, as the video shows. My visits were post-2011, and each DC had a record of the building's movement during the big earthquake; max amplitude on the seismic-protected part was a couple of centimeters, vs 50 cms or more for the rest of the building.