(no subject)

[camwyn]

I think I'm in love and it's with an IT disaster recovery company. I swear, the facility I toured on Friday felt like it was designed by gamers- gamers with names like Van Hoose. That's how redundant their security, power, and fire prevention systems were. They even keep a team of white-hat hackers paid to attempt intrusions and discover weaknesses on a regular basis. They take N+1 redundancy to extremes- I mean, they've got enough generators there to light up bloody Albany, they've got the security system rigged so that if you get into an area you aren't authorised to be in (and several areas of the building are only available to three people's badges) you can only follow the path to the outside world, which is quite naturally ringed with security cameras and motion sensors... oh, did I mention that if the sensors indicate that more than one person has gone through a door that calls for both your badge and your matching fingerprint ID, the nearest other doors will refuse to open, except to let you out in case of fire?

Even the fire suppression system is localised and redundant. Unfortunately it uses water, but I think the power is cut out to any machines that catch on fire when two separate sensors pick up on any combination of smoke and 160-degree temperatures. Foam was written out of the equation because once a foam system discharges you have to call the company to come and reload it, whereas on New Year's Even with six inches of snow on the ground and evil temperatures outside, the local utility companies still run water, so if a fire breaks out and is suppressed, another one can start an hour later and be suppressed even if the fire department has already left.

SO. PRETTY. From a purely technologically sensible point of view, of course.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. REALLY nice.

[kyrielle]

...though I'm surprised, thinking about it, that they didn't deploy foam fire supression as a first response with a detection system to unleash the water if the foam was unavailable or failed to completely suppress the fire.... :)

[thekit.livejournal.com]

I was surprised that they didn't have the whole machine room under argon gas, so no fires would start in the first place. If you want to go in to change a patch lead, you could wear a respirator... or a bright yellow hazard suit... and carry a crowbar... mmm crowbar.