RE: DATACENTER: Mixed Use Facility

["Roeland M.J. Meyer" <rmeyer@mhsc.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-datacenter@itchy.shorty.com
> [mailto:owner-datacenter@itchy.shorty.com]On Behalf Of Robert Szarka
> Sent: Sunday, June 06, 1999 1:58 PM
>
> At 05:50 AM 6/6/99 , Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> [...]
> >I know the original post was a joke. However, I was at IBM,
> Santa Teresa
> >Labs when some whacko drove his car through the facade of the Cottle
> >Road facility (San Jose) and proceeeded to assault personel at the
> >facility (he started shooting), in 1991.
>
> Holy cow!  What was the outcome?

I forget the details, some folks were hurt, one or two died. That whole
part of the building was closed for a few weeks while the police were
conducting their investigation. Oh yeah, I believe that the perp shot
himself in the process. Ergo, no one to prosecute (California has a lot
of that). Like the Columbine shootings, no amount of law will stop the
whackos. What would they do, jail a corpse? Yeah, right. I do remember
something about Lithium and down-sizing.

> I was actually going to ask earlier
> whether armed guards were being employed at most
> facilities...  I guess I
> will just stop worrying about sounding paranoid--seems to be
> a feature not a bug in this context.  ;)

Considering the rise in this type of occurance, a little paranoia is
called for. Consider the effect, on your business, if the data center
were to be shut down for a week or two (forget the capital equipment. Or
the deleterious effects, on staff, of such an incident (6-8 weeks
down-time). Insurance will only go just so far... Just because you are
paranoid, doesn't mean that someone ain't out to get you.

> [...]
> >Leasing/Buying an old CO isn't terribly expensive, if you
> can find one
> >available. When PacBell was deploying the Broadband system I
> got to tour
> >some many of the Bay Area COs. A 5ESS is a *bunch* smaller than those
> >old cross-bar systems. What used to occupy three floors, now takes a
> >corner of one floor. The rest is largely unused. The RBOCS
> are missing a
> >bet in not leasing out the floor-space. Oh yeah, those old COs are
> >mini-forts. Some of them are NBC certified.
>
> Hmn..  so one does wonder why co-location seems to be so difficult for
> CLECs, eh?  ;)

The main reason is security. The RBOCs are still having to comply with
some old rules, from the days when the telco infrastructure was
considered a National Security Resource.

> Maybe a dumb question, but what is 'NBC certified'?

Not so dumb, I'm showing my age. The current generation doesn't have a
preponderance of veterans. Some common terms are no longer ... so
common. This may be a good thing, it may not, I dunno.

NBC = (def) Nuclear, Biological, Chemical;
It concerns the degree to which a facility or organization is proof
against such attacks. Bomb-shelters come to mind and many older COs
actually qualify as bomb-shelters (no windows, thick rebar reinforced
concrete walls, independent filtered air-supply, generator rooms,
Faraday-caged frame rooms, steel access doors, concrete man-traps, etc).