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Most Dangerous Time of the Year
Deck the halls with razor wire and motion detectors
December 22, 2006
1 Min Read
4:45 PM -- Forget that seasonal goodwill or any pipedreams of peace... because criminals are just waiting for you to get in your car and drive away from the data center so they can take their forklifts and make off with terabytes of your precious data.
That was the implication in an email yesterday from iTRACS, the self-described leader in "intelligent network infrastructure management," warning network managers "to be wary of office perils this holiday season."
"Whether it is someone using the office phones to make international calls, or someone stealing data, computer equipment or mobile devices, network managers need to keep and eye on what is going on and coming off their networks over this period."
Free advice from Byte and Switch: Buy a webcam.
Still, it probably behooves all of us to review data center holiday safety. By all means, print these out for quick reference:
Holiday lights should be strung from the tops of rackmount enclosures, and never LUN to LUN.
Mistletoe among the servers can get tricky. Snogging and disk drives don't always mix, and there's potential for unwanted attention from HR.
RAID enclosures make crummy coasters for eggnog, hot buttered rum, or wassail. Trust us on this one.
Despite what you may have seen on YouTube, playing backup tapes in a cassette deck with the "Play" and "FF" buttons pushed will not make your data sound like The Chipmunks' rendition of "O Tannenbaum."
Forcing your lead vendor salesman to dress as an elf and take requests at the staff karaoke party won't always lead to a discount.
USB ports were never designed for candles.
Wishing you and yours a peril-free holiday from the entire staff of Byte and Switch.
Terry Sweeney, Editor in Chief, Byte and Switch
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