Computer Rooms are Still People Rooms

Edit: We still need to plan for humans in data centers.

Originally posted February 8, 2011 on AIXchange

I travel to customer sites across the country — including customer-owned facilities, outsourcing facilities, disaster/recovery facilities and co-location facilities — and I see plenty of raised floors. But I’m always fascinated by how much these sites cater to machines rather than people.

These days many large data centers are designed as lights-out environments, where people don’t need to go onsite at all. Troubleshooting and administration are done via the network, from anywhere on the globe. This is great, especially for companies that utilize sun-support scenarios, where different teams in different countries and different time zones support machines during their normal business hours. Provided that good turnover information is being passed on from shift to shift, and calls and trouble tickets are accurately logged in a searchable database, this is a terrific support setup. At least it’s preferable, I think, to having IT staff members carry pagers and get called in the middle of the night to work on problems.

Then there are the colo data centers that many companies now use. Customers have one or more racks that sit next to other customers’ racks, and each is housed behind its own chain link fence. Although the prison aesthetic of these “caged” machines can take some getting used to, again, the concept has its place. Customers can get personalized attention from the staff that typically mans the facility 24-7, and the costs to rent space can be quite reasonable.

However, the reality is that computers still need to be installed and decommissioned on a regular basis. Even if these new facilities are designed to have only a few people working onsite, IT folk are constantly coming in and out. Recently we joked about one large site reminding us of the place in the original Raiders of the Lost Ark where they ended up storing the Ark of the Covenant, just a huge cavernous warehouse full of pallets as far as the eye could see.

The simple, frustratingly overlooked truth is that people need to get stuff done, and they need room to do it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to stack cardboard boxes to create a makeshift desk on a raised floor or temporarily cover the perforated floor tiles that are needed to cool the raised floor. The computers may need the AC to do their job, but I can’t do mine if I’m a human popsicle.

It always amazes me to see these new facilities and their state-of-the-art security apparatus: cameras, biometric man traps, retina scanners, voice recognition systems and sensors that weigh people coming and going (to ensure that you’re not walking out with some valued piece of equipment). And yet, many of these same places are constructed without enough conference rooms, lounge areas, work spaces and even bathrooms.

It goes without saying that if these facilities don’t have enough room for people on a daily basis, they’re not equipped to handle a disaster scenario, either. I’ve heard facilities managers say that in the event of a disaster that would bring an influx of IT folks to their site, they’d just get some portable toilets. (I guess that would work as long as it isn’t one of those disasters where it’s really hot or really cold outside; otherwise those Porta-Potty trips could get a little uncomfortable.)

The point is, if you’re in charge of planning and managing a data center, remember us humans. Unlike the computers, we need places to eat. We may need places to sleep. We absolutely need adequate restrooms. I realize that these facilities are built for computers, but as long as computers need people to work on them, these sites must be designed with people in mind.