Many years ago I when I was working as a support engineer for a managed services company I had the pleasure to be assigned to a company as a temporary tech support resource. Nothing major in the way of technologies and such. Just your standard support for Windows for Workgroups (yes I am not a young man any more!).
I was lucky enough to be allowed to look at this companies server room in their data centre. The one thing that really struck me was how well organised it was. Tidy cables, clean floors, space not being used for storage and the other nightmare's I have encountered in the years since.
Speaking to the manager who ran the centre I found that his secret was organisation. As an example regarding cabling -
All Red Cables - WAN
All Green Cables - Server Backplane to server switch
All Grey Cables - Patch Panels to desktop
All Yellow Cables - Print Services
And so on.
The reasoning was simple - it reduces confusion and is an indicator of the relative sensitivity of the kit the cables are connected to.
I thought back then (and I still think) that this is a great way to keep organised. Sure you have your systems labelled. Usually at the front though. When you are behind the server rack and working on equipment you might not be aware of what is connected to what.
Its all about risk mitigation isn't it?
So on that note I wish everyone a prosperous Happy New Year!
12 hours ago
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