Publication: MicroScope Date: 21/12/2012
The datacentre combover Nick Booth
You can laugh if you want to but Bobby Charlton's hairstyle exemplifies everything about good cable management. In fact, if a man turns up for an interview in your datacentre with a long hair on one side of his head, which is swept across a bald patch, I suggest you sign him up immediately. He will hold the secrets to lowering your power bills, shrinking your carbon footprint and managing your connections efficiently. Like the ex Man United and England striker, your datacentre will be a powerhouse that never goes down easily.
In datacentres, you can judge how good a company's IT management is by the 'hairstyle' of its kit. I am indebted to Dominic Monkhouse, the MD of Peer 1 hosting, for this insight. The hairstyle of the kit is the pattern of cables coming out the back of the rack. An untidy rack, in which cables tumble out of the sockets willy-nilly, and some are allowed to be far too long, causing them to bunch up and tangle, aren't just an eyesore; they are a sign of a network manager or datacentre boss who is not on top of his game. If you visit a potential hosting partner, and you find what looks like a gonk hiding in a spaghetti tree growing in their hot aisle, this is a sign that the man in charge of your critical missions is a buffoon, according to Monkhouse. Unless the cables are all neatly labelled, and prettily bunched together with colour-coded ties, you're sleep-walking into the abyss. Your IT infrastructure, your company's life and indeed your entire future is in the hands of an incompetent. Monkhouse says he gives a bollocking to any datacentre manager with untidy filaments. He sounds like an old fashioned Sergeant Major: “Am I hurting you, son? Well I should be: I'm standing on your hair!� That may sound harsh, but it's fair. A messy panel indicates a slapdash management style which could lead to expensive mistakes, such as the wrong plug being pulled and extensive PEER1hosting@championcomms.com Champion Communications Ltd. 3rd Floor Radiant House, 36-38 Mortimer Street, London, WIW 7RG