[TriLUG] Have you ever worked at a Data Center?

Keith Woodie kwoodie at gmail.com
Thu Nov 11 15:47:40 EST 2010


I won't say what company I work for, but we are regulated so we have a lot
more time to get things right.  I once worked for a retail company and on my
first day the interviewing manager told me that in retail we have to be able
to go 100 miles an hour down the road and be able to change any component on
the car without slowing down or stopping.  The scary thing is that it was a
very true statement.

Oh and I concur with some other responses.  Data centers are loud and cold
on the "floor".  We still have pretty high security too.
Keith Woodie


On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 1:56 PM, Edwin Castillo <edwin at wiredbytes.com>wrote:

> Keith,
>
> That's an awesome description. It sounds very close to an environment  I
> worked at once. I never had "someone to bounce ideas with". We were close
> knit but management didn't want two or more people working on any given
> project. They considered it too much of a "cost" if two techs instead of
> one
> were working on a project. Needless to say, I no longer work there because
> of management, although the technical team was pretty cool.
>
> What about the pace? The pace at the job I mentioned before was so rushed
> that the quality of our work was pure crap, but that is how the company was
> able to offer great prices.
>
> Regards,
> Edwin Castillo
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 1:40 PM, <matt at noway2.thruhere.net> wrote:
>
> > I haven't worked for a data center itself, but I did work for a company
> > that makes static switches and PDUs for them, and spent a bit of time in
> > them.
> >
> > One of the biggest things I noticed was the tight security, at least at
> > the ones I was at.  You had to be pre-approved to even get in the parking
> > lot.  You had have proper ID on you at all times, and often times be
> > escorted.  Every door, expect perhaps the bathrooms, was at least key
> card
> > access and sometimes retinal scan.
> >
> > The A/C in the buildings was the next thing I really noticed.  It was
> cool
> > and breeze, at least on the "floor", but it was loud.  Walking / standing
> > on raised floors is about as comfortable as concrete so make sure you
> have
> > good shoes.
> >
> > No windows is definitely true.  You tend to lose all sense of time as the
> > light and environment is almost constant and it feels like I would
> imagine
> > a Borg cube to feel with row upon row of black fridge sized boxes.  I
> > suppose this could be an issue, or possibly a benefit, if you are on
> > alternate shifts.
> >
> > The people seem to be quite tight knit and the facilities have always
> been
> > comfortable with decent break areas, often times including soda machines,
> > coffee makers, and even cable TV.  Internet access, though, was usually
> > difficult to obtain, unless you went to a manager level office.
> >
> >
> >
> > > Yeah....that would help a lot.  My company has pretty much married
> > > Microsoft.  :(
> > > On Nov 11, 2010 12:38 PM, "Alan Porter" <porter at trilug.org> wrote:
> > >> > One of the best things I remember about working at the data
> > >> > center was the team building and luncheon events we did to
> > >> > boost morale, because we didn't have any windows.
> > >>
> > >> Not having Windows would boost my morale by itself.
> > >>
> > >> Oh wait... that's not what you meant, was it?
> > >>
> > >> Alan
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> >
> > --
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