Why you keep children out of data centers
The Daily WTF is one of my daily reads. Subtitled “Curious perversions in information technology”, it allows readers to submit wretched source code examples, IT development horror stories, and similar cringe-inducing true-life accounts. (It’s fun to read the comments on source code postings; they bring to mind the old joke, “Q: How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Thirty-seven; one to change it, and thirty-six to say, ‘I could have done that better.'”)
Anyway, today’s Daily WTF has a story about a children’s tour of a corporate data center on ‘Take Your Child To Work Day’:
Imagine how exciting a modern data center like the one at Robert’s organization would be for a child. Bright lights, multiple backup UPS systems, redundant AC units, and a very powerful generator out back to ensure there can never be an outage. Several giant systems housing multi-terabyte storage arrays, four huge IBM P695’s, and a few hundred other servers. Super high tech security to restrict physical access to the datacenter and a round-the-clock staff of fourteen administrators to lord over it all. I’m sure quite a few of you were getting excited just thinking about all that. Really, could there be a more awesome place to take the kiddies to see what millions of dollars of computer equipment looks like?
The CIO, a big fan of Take-Your-Child-To-Work Day, would give a fun presentation on how much computing power the organization required and then lead the kids on a tour of the data center. They loved it, and there were never any real problems. Well, until that one year when one little tyke couldn’t resist the temptation of The Big Red Button….
Read the rest over there (and be sure to read the comments as well). ..bruce..
Category: Humor, Information Technology, Main
About the Author (Author Profile)
Webster is Principal and Founder at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at bwebster@bfwa.com, or you can follow him on Twitter as @bfwebster.Subscribe
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