What not to put in your datacenter (Re: Datacenter discussion forum?)

[Sean Donelan <SEAN () SDG DRA COM>]

Massively off-topic, but I was doing a bit of research on another
project and came across this fun-filled fact today.

Between 1992 and 1996 there were 14 fires in electronic equipment
rooms caused by COOKING EQUIPMENT!  Today's duh-you've-got-to-be
kidding-hint: do not put stoves, hot plates, ovens or rotisseries
(that's correct, rotisseries) in your equipment rooms.

If your network operations staff want some roasted chicken, may
I suggest a good resturant or a seperate kitchen, not the computer
room.

The good news was dedicated computer and telecommunication facilities
averaged less than $0.44 million in direct fire losses per year.  Compared
to $21 million in direct fire losses per year from electronic equipment
fires in other structures (e.g. general businesses, hospitals, hotels,
universities, etc).  In case your marketing people don't get it, I just
gave the folks building (good) co-locate facilities a huge gift for their
salespeople in this paragraph.  However, past performance is not a
guarantee of future results :-)
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
  Affiliation given for identification not representation