Data Center Contest: Saran Wrap to the rescue!

We’re gathering stories and photos for a cool contest sponsored by American Power Conversion (APC). Share your data center tales of woe with us for fun and prizes.

First prize wins a Nintendo Wii game system or 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. Find out more about the Data Center Contest and enter today.

Enjoy the contest entry below — and feel free to comment.

Community Manager

From a Member who wishes to remain anonymous:

When the data center was being planned some of the political “designers” went to visit some other data centers. One they visited was in the basement of a building that had a restroom on the first floor with a toilet that insisted on flooding the bathroom frequently. The flooding created cracks in the floor, which then leaked onto the computer equipment below.

The solution they came with (instead of fixing the toilet, go figure engineers) was to install rolls of heavy plastic on the walls above the server racks. These rolls were to be unrolled over the server racks to prevent the dripping water from doing damage to the equipment below. I can’t imagine it was ever used but it impressed the “political designers” who insisted that the new Data Center be equipped with similar rolls of plastic.

Of course as the technicians came into the room for the first time and saw the rolls and had it explained – Saran Wrap Lane, Glad Wrap Avenue, etc. quickly began forming. And of course the invaluable insight that it could be used in case of fire to cover the equipment preventing damage from the fire sprinklers – provided the operators were 10 feet tall, to pull the rolls, mounted 10’ up, over the 10 foot server racks 30 feet long. And had the courage? (stupid dedication) to spend that time protecting equipment instead of running for their life during the fire.

Anyhow, the plastic rolls have now justified their existence providing the wind tunnel described above.