December, 2002

Is Your Data Center Livin' in the 80's?

Talk shows dominated the airwaves, music had an electronic edge, people shouted "Me! Me! Me!" and ET phoned home. Reagan economics dominated the home front as others saw the fall of the Berlin Wall. People were wearing jeans in colorful shades to match their tall and tinted hair. People feared Orwellian prophesies as the decade reached its center.

The 1980s were a great time but gave way to the changes of the 1990s and the new millennium. Many things have changed since then, often for the better.  However, not everything has changed.

Is Your Data Center Livin' in the 80's?

New equipment has come and gone since the 1980s. Technology has changed, and everything is faster.  Some standards though are still "livin' in the 80s."

An insurance requirement for many data centers today is to carry one million dollars.  That is the same standard as was held in the 1980s. The cost of downtime, though, has risen in the past few decades.

The New Millennium

With the changing needs of the modern data center, and the high-risk environment of today's world, many data centers are changing their insurance requirements.  Requirements are now calling for vendors to carry up to ten million dollars worth of coverage.

Management is changing requirements in order to scrutinize their vendors more efficiently. Nowadays, any one with $500 can purchase one million dollars worth of coverage. Ten million dollar insurance policies are a bigger risk, so the insurance companies research the company to be insured thoroughly. They want to make sure the company is good and experienced. Shouldn't you?

We know you are busy, but we encourage you to review the insurance requirements in your policies. Be sure to ask vendors working in the critical areas of your data center what kind of guarantee and insurance they can provide.

Side Note:

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A Down and Dirty Year

Working in the under floor environment of data centers across the country, we run into some interesting things when we pull those tiles. Here's a top ten sampling of some of the weirdest (and scariest) things we have found under the floor tiles.

10. Empty beer cans

9. Burnt paper

8. Old Computers

7. Insects

6. Empty chip bags

5. Mouse nests

4. File boxes

3. Extra clothes

2. Sand Dune

1. A Dead Rat

What's under your floor?


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What Does it All Mean?

Does this topic (or other topics we have presented in previous issues) seem important to you? Did you think to yourself "They have got to hear about this" or "I would like to have more information about that?"

If so, we are available to give presentations on the topics that we have presented (or topics of your choice) at company meetings, association meetings, or a general meeting on our behalf.

If you want more information or believe other people in your company need to hear about these important issues, please contact us about setting up an informative presentation: [email protected]

Air Plenum Publications
By: Matthew Frank
www.airplenum.com
©2002 Air Plenum