David Bombal #541: When the Internet Dies During Surgery
Feb 20, 2026
Rob (Presidio CTO) — network and AI systems pro helping medical nonprofits. Grady Nichols — IT lead running shipboard data centers and connectivity for a floating hospital. They tackle Faraday-cage woes, designing redundant ship networks and Wi‑Fi, using AI for clinical scribing, coping with cut fiber mid‑surgery, and planning next‑gen hospital ship tech.
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Ship Is A Self-Contained Digital City
- Mercy Ships operates as a floating city with two data centers per vessel to support hospital, academy, and hospitality services.
- The ship's metal structure creates Faraday-cage-like challenges that require careful network and power architecture.
Bandwidth And Power Are Mission Constraints
- Bandwidth and power are major constraints when the vessel docks in countries with limited infrastructure.
- Mercy Ships blends satellite (VSAT) and local ISPs and prioritizes critical medical traffic to cope with limited links.
Design Redundancy By Fire Zone
- Build redundant systems separated by fire zones and UPS legs to ensure failover for critical services.
- Design IDFs and switch stacks across zones so operations continue during localized failures.