It looks great a great Data Centre, but ...

I've just visited a small data centre which had been developed by someone who's had little previous training in creating such rooms/buildings. This lady has good business qualifications and has had plenty of experience as a general manager, but little in the operation of a data centre. 

She was proud at the low development costs of the site, partly achieved by using lowest bid general contractor. The overall decorative appearance of the "Data Centre" is good, but when you dig a bit deeper into the construction methods the picture changes. 

To spare her blushes I won't go into too much detail but there were some basic mistakes. I've made some recommendations relating to safety which shocked her as there's now no budget to fix the issues and she doesn't want to interrupt operations with additional works.

There are many factors to consider when planning and designing a Data Centre, but here are the main factors I put into consideration:

• Power
• Cooling
• Resilience
• Weight bearing capabilities of the building structure
• Noise and vibration
• Insulation
• Security and safety
• Lighting
• Personnel
• Access
• Data, telecommunications and power cabling
• Shared Mechanical and Electric facilities
• Space allocation
• Storage
• Maintenance
• Expansion and upgrading planning

These factors overlap and are often interdependent leading to many careful design decisions being required.

In the case mentioned at the start of this blog article. I've recommended an increase in the fire rating of a couple of walls and doors. It is possible to retro-fit this, but the process will require some minor building works. I've also recommended one stud wall where there is public access should have greater security by adding security mesh lathing with a surface covering of lightweight wallboard. I'm sorry to ruin the wallpaper!

Interest Rate Swaps to small business debacle

Just watched a BBC article about a small childrens nursery business which had taken a loan from Barclays and which bundled in an Interest Rate Swap trade to "protect" them from interest rate increases. The additional cost above the loan so far has been £100,000.

I'm not surprised by the reports of small businesses being caught out by interest rate swaps. The banks who sold these to businesses can have no defence. I was working in a City of London Moneybrokers in the 1990's and remember the banks being forced to unwind similar IRS deals made to the treasury departments of Local Authorities. If Local Authority had been caught out by such trades it is obvious that small businesses were in a much worse position when it comes to being aware of the risks.

Karcher Dry Ice Blasting - do they want to do business>

My company is looking into providing dry ice blasting as part of a Disaster Recovery Service. Cleaning up after flood and smoke damage can be expensive and messy. Features of dry ice blasting are attractive in that they do not create secondary waste material and are not as abrasive as sand blasting. In order to venture into that business area we've allocated a substantial R & D budget to investigate what equipment is most suitable to offer a service and also to provide operator training.

As part of those investigations we decided to look at the Karcher IB 15/80 dry ice blasting machine. We made contact through the Karcher UK web site with a view to identifying local distributors and the investment required to start using their equipment.

The only response from Karcher was a phone call a couple of days later from a sales clerk whose opening statement was that Karcher wanted to send a representative around to inspect our site. When we queried why we were given the response that this was for "Health and Safety." There was no discussion of our requirement, and no request of what information we needed. We terminated the call immediately saying we were no longer interested and there were alternative suppliers we could approach.

There's since been radio silence from Karcher. No follow up to determine why we backed away. We do wonder if Karcher really wants this type of business in the UK.

Filling gaps in Datacentre

Windchill Engineering market a fire rated memory foam which is good at filling gaps in your datacentre thus avoiding air loss.

Microsoft Azure outage - again

There must be a few CTO's feeling rather uncomfortable at their recommendation to the Board that their organisation should use Microsoft's Azure hosted computing facility. It was down again for eight hours on 23rd February from 9pm GMT. Someone in MS had forgotten to renew a security certificate. This is almost on the anniversary of a similar failure last year.

Apparently Microsoft will offer "credits" for the lost service hours. They should be showing someone's head on a platter, after paying genuine compensation.

Protecting your building during construction work

Like most business managers I get loads of emails every day which I quickly delete after a cursory glance at the title and contents. One which caught my attention was from a company called Protecta Screen. They do a range of temporary protective sheeting for floors, walls, doors, stairs to prevent damage during construction and decorating works. It is worth noting their web address if you are likely to be involved in any office, home or data centre expansion work. It might be worth suggesting such a range of products to your contractor.

Shopping in Canary Wharf

I called in to the shopping mall under Canary Wharf in London Docklands today to buy some Christmas presents.  I didn't last long because the sight of my gray hair triggered a CCTV  intruder alarm.