A number of years ago I was involved in shutting down a data centre, then I was involved in shutting down an other – then an other. Now I’m in a new position or contract or call it what you will and guess what, I’m shutting down yet an other data centre. In actual fact this will be the seventh closure that I’ve been involved with in the last seven years, only this time the job is all mine – discovery, planning and implementation.
Once the new offices have been identified, I’ll also be responsible for all aspects on the relocation. This will include the power planning, the cooling requirements (At the last place they were still using Punkah Wallahs) and anything else that they can throw my way. The reduction in people will be significant and the cost savings as well, the existing building will probably be demolished within a couple of week of the office move – so there will probably be some involvement there. All so as someone can say that they have achieved a required saving, not that I’m complaining – it is work after all. I can’t help thinking that some of these things just aren’t right, most of these closures have been in the name of increasing profits and hence shareholders returns – no bad thing if you’re a shareholder.
Still when the actual implementation comes around it will be me on my own that will be carrying the can for this one, that’s when the Poo-Poo Pixie will come calling – I’ve already had someone come and ask about data that was relocated six weeks after it had been moved and the local server de-racked. They did eventually find the email that I’d sent them telling them where the data had been relocated to, it didn’t give me reason to be confident in their other abilities though.