Here’s the thing: here at QuoteColo we love, absolutely love, everything about colocation and web hosting. We have to admit, we are web hosting nerds. We love having a lively conversation about how much a full cabinet in a Tier 4 data center should cost and we love having a debate over whether the Cloud will kill colocation in the years to come. But here is the thing, for all of our love of colocation and data center web hosting, we have to admit something: working in a data center 24/7/365 is akin to getting lost in the milk isle of a super market – it’s cold, it’s disorienting, it’s mind numbing and it’s bright.
For everyone who has ever made a living working in data centers, here are the top four reasons why living in the data center life can suck your soul dry.
1. Time, What Time?
A tried and true aspect of working within data centers – there is no time. Like a Las Vegas casino or your local Stop & Shop, working within the colocation world is working within a world that has no doors, no windows and no clock. Due to this, colocation and dedicated server employees can spend countless hours in a data center without knowing if the sun is up, what time it is or if it is 95 degrees outside. Time, what time?
2. Are You Ready to Shiver?
When I began working in the world of data centers for a regional dedicated server provider years back, I made a key mistake the first time I visited the company Tier 4 data center. That mistake: dressing in shorts and a tee. Another major truth within the data center world is data centers are cold. They are cold to ensure the servers and colocation equipment held within remain cold and operational. With raised floors to allow for extensive cold air circulation, the average temperature of a data center is 70 degrees or below. This means, for anyone wearing anything but pants and a sweatshirt, you’re going to be freezing over a long period of time.
3. Ever Always Buzzing
They say white noise can put you to sleep. Let us tell you, from years of first hand experience working in data centers around the world, the ever always buzzing of colocation servers, dedicated servers, Cloud hosting servers and shared servers, can do put you to sleep in a matter of minutes (this is of course, not considering the cold). Another truth of working with colocation gear 24/7/365 is getting used to the unnatural sound of always on servers. It’s like a bee buzzing in your ear, but for 8 hours straight. Thanks Cloud hosting servers for that ever dull buzzing in my ears!
4. Lights, Camera, Action
While looking for a jar of chunky peanut butter in your local Stop & Shop, have you ever got the feeling that the store is kept unnaturally bright to blind you from the reality of natural sunlight? Well, if you have, you know what it’s like to work in a web hosting data center facility 24/7/365. With lights that never shut off, an unnatural incandescent glow and the light spectrum resembling something out of a terrible Navy SEALS training exercise, living in a data center means readjusting your eyes to a light source which plays games with your optic nerves. We all know dedicated sever solutions and Cloud computing infrastructures need to be maintained and upgraded, yet please, someone change the light bulbs in every data center across the globe.
From having no conception of the time, to constantly freezing your buss off, to never hearing another thing again aside from a dull buzzing of servers and seeing only an unnatural spectrum of light, living the data center life means readjusting yourself to what it means to be human.