Plug the Hole! The Birds! The Birds! The Horror!

When you are looking to build out a Data Centre there are usually a few options one should consider from the start.

Are you looking to build a brand new facility or looking for a existing building? This is a good start and as with most things one needs to understand the impact of that decision. In this post I am looking more at pre-existing facilities.

There are many factors to consider when looking at a possible Data Centre facility. Location, security, size, access, utilities, wildlife...all must be considered.

Some very brief examples (I know there is much more but for the sake of my fingers I will jump to the chase)

• Location - this comes with a price tag. Central London is expensive but siting your DC out in the middle of nowhere also has costs.
• Security - is it located near an airport? What is the surrounding area like? You don't really want to place your DC in a high crime area.
• Size - This is a good one. Can your Data Centre withstand growth if needed? Is there space?
  
• Access - No bloody stairs!* How easy is it for kit to be dropped off, staged and rollout into the actual machine room?
  
• Utilities - Does the area suffer from brown/black outs? Who do you share your mains power with? How old and how well maintained are local water services?
• Wildlife - When buildout has completed make sure there are no creatures left behind.
  

Ok yes the last one is slightly odd I admit. However there is a story about this. At the time not amusing for all concerned but as with many harshly learnt lessons, time lends a hand to soften the blow.

I was visiting a DC when there was a commotion in the server room. I noticed a couple of engineers running past the window into the server room. I looked at my host, the DC Manager and the DC Director looked back at me with looks of 'no...we are not crazy here!'. Obviously I don't have much of a poker face!

So DC Manager rushes into the server room while Director and I make idle chat. About 5 minutes later of watching the activities in the server room and making small chat the Director goes into the server room.

The next sight was one I really would never have thought I would see. There was the DC Director using their jacket to catch something. So I amble closer to the window and peer in.

Birds. Well pigeons. Flying rats. Two of them had somehow managed to get in this room. That is supposed to be sealed. So I was given a top class show on how geeks catch birds and how managers deal with the supervising aspect of such a project. I was pretty floored and counted my lucky stars that I was not involved. Mainly as I am sure I'd have flapped around like a headless chicken as well. Still there was no way I was going to leave!

I think eventually the birds got tired and the good Data Centre folks caught them and released them outside. Then they spent a goodly time trying to figure out what happened. While they were poking around the server room one of the engineers spotted a pigeons head poking through from the outside wall.

Seems that there was a smallish hole (you would not have seen it unless you looked straight at it) that these birds were using to get into the server room. Yes...they eventually found the nest as well.

Lessons learned here are to really make sure that your site is actually secure. That includes the facility's integrity. This means that while the buildout of the server room is being done that there are checks to ensure that there are no holes.

* http://tftsr.blogspot.com/2009/08/you-gotta-be-strong-in-it.html <--- I hate stairs. No really.