Data Center Contest: Bathroom or Server room?

We’re gathering stories and photos for a cool contest sponsored by American Power Conversion (APC). All you need to do is share your data center tales of woe with us for fun and prizes like a Nintendo Wii game system for first prize. You could be eligible to receive one of twenty (20) copies of System Specifications and Project Manual for Data Centers (a $250 value!) just for entering the contest.

This Data Center Contest will run for two months (Oct-Nov) and it’s fine with us if you wish to remain anonymous. So feel free to share the wackiest kludge you’ve ever seen in a data center – it’s okay – we won’t tell on you.

Enjoy our first contest entry below — and feel free to comment.

Community Manager

Member N.E Harris writes in:

In my travels I see many data centers. Some designed very well and others like this one. I wanted to share this because it is very funny and true. I traveled 3 hours to visit a school to review their data center/network because they had heat load and power problems. After introductions we went to see the physical data center. I knew something was wrong when everybody enter the boys bathroom. I did not need to go so I stop at the door thinking that they had to go.

The door opens again and they asked if I was coming in. Confused, I stated no I did not have to go. They laughed and said they converted this bathroom into their network Data Center. I went inside and it looked like a bathroom with working fixtures. They opened a bathroom stall and there on top of an active toilet was a server rack. They cover the toilet with a wooded box and placed the server rack on top.

This was a first for me and after driving 3 hours, now I had to go. I could not figure out why they did this. I asked if the bathroom was going to be replaced with a data center or server room. They stated no, this was the space giving to them for this rack and they had other racks in 2 other bathrooms. The real reason is, this was old school and they did not have space to put racks anywhere. I gave my solution which included getting the racks out of the bathrooms. I still to this day, when other clients ask what are some of the worst data centers I have ever seen, this one comes up in the top 3. I’ve got to go…”