Data Center Designers In High Demand

Hugh Pickens writes "For years, data center designers have toiled in obscurity in the engine rooms of the digital economy, amid the racks of servers and storage devices that power everything from online videos to corporate e-mail systems but now people with the skills to design, build and run a data center that does not endanger the power grid are suddenly in demand. 'The data center energy problem is growing fast, and it has an economic importance that far outweighs the electricity use,' said Jonathan G. Koomey of Stanford University. 'So that explains why these data center people, who haven't gotten a lot of glory in their careers, are in the spotlight now.' The pace of the data center build-up is the result of the surging use of servers, which in the United States rose to 11.8 million in 2007, from 2.6 million a decade earlier. 'For years and years, the attitude was just buy it, install it and don't worry about it,' says Vernon Turner, an analyst for IDC. 'That led to all sorts of inefficiencies. Now, we're paying for that behavior.'" On a related note, an anonymous reader contributes this link to an interesting look at how a data center gets built.

News at 11

[spikedvodka]

Qualified Professionals in demand, news at 11

I don't see what's so hard about it..

[Paranatural]

Get some folding card tables, throw yer servers on there, then get yerself a extension cord and a couple of power strips to give ya enough outlets offa those two plugs in th' wall, and get yerself one of them fans from Walmart ta blow over 'em if yer feelin fancy. Voila. Them college kids think they're so smart, that wasn't hard at all. You can even get a bucket of water in case anything catches fire!

if the engineers in the datacenter

[circletimessquare]

really want respect, all they have to do is send an urgent email to the ceo that the dilithium crystals are deteriorating, and that the antimatter containment fields are failing, and we can't take much more of this captain

Doing it for the glory?

[Anonymous Coward]

'...these data center people, who haven't gotten a lot of glory in their careers, are in the spotlight now.'

Glory? If I wanted glory I would have become a firefighter or something. I got into the data center business to read people's email, plain and simple. That's reward enough!

Re:I don't see what's so hard about it..

[Vectronic]

Don't forget the dry ice, that takes care of cooling and any possible fires, plus it's great for parties, or re-enacting Star Wars, et al.

Blackbox computing - scaling design skills

[dstates]

Instead of everyone hiring their own designer and doing a one off solution, go for the data center in a shipping container [sun.com]. Cost you less than the architects will charge you for thr building design, and a proper industrial design can make the HVAC more efficient and save lots of $$ in the long run.

UK Government

[youthoftoday]

From T second FA:

The centre is fitted with state-of-the-art security and has undergone an array of checks to allow it to process data up to government level.

If they're up to UK Government data security level I wouldn't trust them with anything

kinda offtopic

[trybywrench]

I use to have a few friends who worked for UUNET in Richardson TX. After Worldcom bought them and then the scandel happened their datacenter was reduced to a skeleton crew (including security). My buddy worked nights so some weekends I'd drive up to Richardson from Dallas with some beer and he'd sneak me into the datacenter through a door that the smokers used and we'd hang out, drink, and download movies/watch pron. Good times.

Their UPS was pretty impressive. It was about a 2 thousand square foot room full of what looked like car batteries. I didn't like to go in there, I don't like being around large, uninsulated, potential. (I was electrocuted pretty badly as a kid once)

Re:Suggestion for Data Center Design(ers)

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Sound proof booth!

Will it b-b-b-b-b-be w-w-w-w-warm in th-th-th-th-there?

Re:News at 11

[ch-chuck]

One demerit for error in format: that should be film at 11.