How Would You Design Your Dream Office? 376
An anonymous reader writes "My company is building a new office. As the local IT Guy, I've been asked to design my new office from the ground up. If you were given the opportunity to design your dream office, what features would you include? What things would you try to avoid? I get to determine absolutely everything. The catch? I have to share my office space with all the network equipment. Just 4 standard racks, and all your basic telephone and network wiring. Can anyone help me get started? I have no idea where to even begin."
First investment (Score:5, Insightful)
My recommendations (Score:5, Informative)
2) Soundproof & insulate that wall or your office will be noisy & 65 degrees F year round.
3) Make sure there's extra room in the server side of it, or your office will get taken over.
4) Your desk should face the door. Otherwise, people will always walk up behind you.
5) Get a filing cabinet, some drawers and some shelves to keep your stuff in. Whenever you get paperwork, file it if it would be troublesome to get another copy or you'll refer to it often, recycle it otherwise.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I would even go further. See if they will allow two doors into the hallway. If they will, then simply make two completely seperate rooms.
They may have to... (Score:5, Informative)
OSHA has something to say [osha.gov] about the matter.
Re:My recommendations (Score:4, Informative)
A small room, 12' by 12', is about what it takes to house four racks. Okay, you could go with 10' x 12' if you only make space on one end to get around the racks, but 12x12 will give you a little growth room (one rack worth). You need space behind the racks as well as in front.
Separate exterior doors to the datacenter is a good idea if you expect the IT department to grow beyond about five people, but for a small shop, having access to the datacenter via your office not only provides a level of security (your office becomes a sort of DMZ), but tends to insure that your office will always be the office of "the IT guy," since no manager wants to have people traipsing through his office all the time to "fool with the computers."
To further your insurance, do a nice custom wiring job in your office space so that you have extra network ports (including some out-of-band ports for monitoring), power outlets that are on the same UPS system as the data center, and a few special ports like serial lines to the console ports of your network and telephone switches. Furthermore, put in a wall-mount PC rack high up on one wall (complete with network port and power outlet) and tie it to a large LCD screen for at-a-glance system monitoring. Don't make the screen too large, as it will be seen as garish. I wouldn't go over 37".
As others suggested, your desk should face the door. In the "public" space between your desk and the door wall should be a small table with two or three chairs for closed-door meetings. Store stacks of paperwork on the table, giving the visual cue that work is always going on in your office. The rest of the office should be clean and well kept. You're the head of IT, everything should be digital, except for your nod to interaction with "the rest of the world" via the papers on the meeting table.
Leave space on the walls for a little art of your choosing. I recommend landscapes or florals, as they tend away from hard lines. It gives you something to look at that's not rigid in nature, and can be very relaxing. Furthermore, it gives the impression to visitors that you're deeper in personality than "just a computer geek." Also, have several plants around the office. They help freshen the air and further take away the stark stigma. Get someone else in the office into a routine of helping you maintain the plants so you can occasionally take a vacation without them dying. If your office has a plant service, so much the better.
The door to your office should have a card-key lock on it, as should the door between your office and the datacenter. Be sure that the access lists for both locks are separate. You want to be sure that you can filter the access for both spaces differently (the whole "DMZ" thing again).
Good luck. I hope it works out for you. I suspect it won't. You should do a Slashback and let us all know how things turn out.
card key lock note.. (Score:3, Informative)
dont ask
Storm
Become Mr. invisible (Score:5, Insightful)
Better, make sure there is no line of sight from the door to your desk. That way no-one can see if you're sitting behind it without coming into the room.
Re:Become Mr. invisible (Score:5, Funny)
Here, let me fix that for you:
Better, make sure there is no line of sight from the door to your desk. That way no-one can see if you're sitting behind it without pants.
Re:My recommendations (Score:5, Funny)
I now work in a place with a separate data center. It's so nice to talk on the phone and not have to explain to others that I am not, in fact, in an airplane back by the engines.
Re:My recommendations (Score:5, Insightful)
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Cabinet space nearby f
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This is absolutely the most important part. I had an office in a server room for a year, and the hearing damage and stress caused by server noise is not worth it.
Also, separate the A/C controls completely. Run your office off the building common supply, and purchase separate units for the server room.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Server room-
Make sure:
1. You check the documentation for your equipment and racks. It'll tell you how much of the following would be required for each rack or piece of hardware:
-power/current required
-heat produced
-coo
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Or you might try remembering that you are there to serve the company, not the other way around.
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Using a well designed ticketing system improves efficiency and service levels, both of which lead to happy internal customers.
Making best use of the assets and resources the company makes available isn't serving the company? Man
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a nearby desk in the main office just like everyone else.
sure yours will have lots of screens, but you still get to be one of the team.
Stop locking yourself away as the weird IT guy.
Also makes it easier to get another person on board, as the need arises.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This one is absolutely correct, and I would also add - Don't have your back to a Window either! My desk is next to a window (sideways facing) and I can look out and into the offices of a bank across the parking lot. With a good pair of binoculars, I bet I would be able to easily make out the text on the dozens of monitors I can see.
Re:My recommendations (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, forget the blackjack.
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The thing was _noisy_. Very very noisy (round the 80dB mark from memory). You can imagine I
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Mac Mini's and Mac Pro's for servers make for quiet work.
Re:First investment (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:First investment (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, how important is your equipment? Assume the room were to disapear what would happen? If the answer is the department/company will be inoperable until the new equipment arrives and you are able to restore stuff from dumps then you both need some redundancy, and are going to want a proper fire suppression system. If you use a neutral gas suppression your going to need an airtight space for the servers (which will probably help with the noise too).
If your job is anything like 90% of IT professionals, you'll spend the minority of your time in your datacenter, that is what terminal services is for. Also, think about all the time spent sourcing vendors, doing project management work, any coding you have to do etc. I'd really fight to have the equipment put somewhere else if I was you. Figure out what percentage of time you need physical contact with the servers/switches and let your boss know. I mean it doesn't make sense to live with the noise and run at reduced efficiency for 80% of your work day for the sake of 300 sqft or so of floor space, if there is any way to avoid it. Also, if the sound proofing ends up sucking, you'll have to take phone calls and stuff with that crap in the background.
It is funny, companies worry about their 20k per year factory workers when it comes to noise, and environmental conditions, but the 60-150k IT guy gets the shaft. Apparently server noise has a different effect on the ears than machine noise.
Re:First investment (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:First investment (Score:5, Interesting)
I might be a rarity, I'm an hourly IT worker. I bill for my time if I get called back in, at least 4hrs plus travel expenses. My reasoning is: getting to work once a day I pay for, if you want me back you pay for it. So far my boss has lived with that. I'm a one of though, so have some leverage. Funny, the finance department said they didn't have enough work for a second IT guy, so instead pay me OT and travel expenses out the wazoo :) As for avoiding salary my reasoning is: if my first 40 hours was worth 75k to you, then my next 40 hours is worth at least another 75k to you. A factory gets a rush job they bill the customer more, and pay their employees extra. A factory machine goes down, they pay the millwrights OT to get it up and running asap. Same should go with IT. I don't mind putting the hours in, but I'll be damned before I'll burn my gas and spend my evening working for free.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:First investment (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First investment (Score:4, Funny)
Re:First investment (Score:5, Insightful)
You and everyone else: the office is to be shared with the NETWORKING racks, not the SERVER racks. There'll be a jillion blinky LED's and a few low volume fans but there won't be the A/Cs, blaring fans, etc, that everyone is going on about. The room will be warmer than usual with even that kind of gear but with a little planning like an independent climate control it won't be that bad.
I'd just recommend you get a color of network cable that you like (I prefer the dark blue ones to the bright yellow ones) and plenty of organizers like the overhead raceways to keep them lined up neatly. Maybe a false ceiling under the raceways to hide them completely. Oh, and natural lighting. If you don't have a window, can you at least get a light tube? [wikipedia.org]
Re:First investment (Score:4, Informative)
A Cisco router creates 43-57 [cisco.com] dBA, equivalent to a TV set blaring constantly one meter away [wikipedia.org]. Four full height racks implies quite a few boxes, too. Not a good working environment.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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Office space? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Cover up empty wall space with your favorite artwork.
If you are lucky enough to have a window, then orient your desk so you can look out.
Proper lighting is key. My 20x16 office has 4 florescent fixtures each with 4 bulbs, and when a few go out you can tell a big difference.
Re: (Score:2)
I've always found windows in offices to be a problem. If you're facing it, you're squinting all day, and if you're facing away from it, you have glare on your monitor. Blinds aren't always available / adequate. I have one of those Japanese tri-fold screens behind my chair to block the window...
Re:Office space? (Score:5, Funny)
There should be room for at least one starbucks, probably in the southwest corner, adjacent to the home depot.
As an eco-friendly bike commuter we are going to want some space for supplies, repairs and a shower would be nice.
Does anyone know how much room we have left at this point?
All I personally would need (Score:3, Funny)
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Sound pollution (Score:4, Insightful)
Also make sure there's lots of A/C ducting near the equipment, it generates a lot of heat.
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That is and important first consideration, along with a door to close so that the office temperature can be warmer than the server room temperature. Beyond that I would like to add: Make the IT office on the far side of the bathroom and break room from everyone else. Keep out of the usual pathways for management. A dim narrow dead end hallway to get to
Dream Office? (Score:5, Funny)
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I think Pattaya Beach in Thailand with a nice Vaio laptop and wireless internet, with pretty girls in bikinis fetching me new batteries when I need them would be a good start. Meetings could be held in hot spas while getting a message.
Oh wait, there's a limitation that it has to be in a crowded room full of computer equipment. Not really a Dream Office now is it?
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Start with walls and a door (Score:2)
Don't forget an independent HVAC too. And seriously consider sound deadening tiles. All those fans add up.
Other then that, a small desk for your laptop, and a bench for test machines.
Plenty of power (Score:3, Insightful)
I know I hate it when my office has to be torn down because the budgeting people never foresaw the growth we'd see. So they wouldn't put in the circuitry for the future. And when the future arrived, the walls had to come down for the power and networking to be installed all over again.
Re:Plenty of power (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, make sure that your building contractors don't skimp on the AC even after you tell them what you need.
Case in point, at my soon to be ex-employer [vt.edu], we moved to a new building in the research park. Of course, they over-promised, and when it turned out we weren't going to get any space in the datacenter in the adjacent building, they stuck the server room in about 230 square feet, L-shaped, in the office building.
Well, first we had to scream and holler that we didn't want a carpeted floor, which they finally agreed to after explaining to them that we had like $120,000 worth of just SAN equipment where all their oh-so-important data was, and that the SAN is so sensitive to voltage changes that it comes with it's own power conditioning unit. That coupled with the dry, cold climate in Blacksburg in the winter eventually convinced them that static electricity is bad(tm).
Then, we ran the numbers into a Dell utility that we have where you input your server model numbers and specs, and it tells you what kind of power and HVAC you need. We ran several sets of numbers, one being with the 3 racks we have now which were about 1/2 populated, and one with our racks fully populated, which, considering we didn't have any of the 3 racks 4 years ago, we figured was a realistic 5 year projection. With our current load (quick list is 2 15-drive sans, about 20ish 1-U servers, and a smattering of 20 or so 2-U and 4-U servers, auto-tape loader, disk storage arrays, and APC 3000VA UPS's. Current load for an AC to keep the server room at 60-65 degrees is about 6-7 tons of AC. Fully loaded, we would need between 13 and 15 (since only about 80% of the servers are dells, we were estimating what the comparable dell model would be, so it's less accurate than it otherwise would be). Also, with current power needs, we'd need 6x 30A twistlock receptacles, and for full-bore, we'd need between 12 and 15 of them. So, of course, we asked for 15 tons of AC and 15 twist-lock 30A plugs.
We didn't hear anything else about it, but of course, we got there and only had 6 plugs (in the wrong places), a 5-ton AC ac (so the server room is about 73-75 in the summer when the sun is on that side of the building), and the intake and outlet vents all wrong. Wonderful.
Ride the builders and the executives, and demand to be involved in the process.
~Wx
Sad (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad (Score:5, Interesting)
Although I often 'worked' from the Starbucks in the public square in front of the building, with my extension forwarded to my cell phone, and a Wi-Fi antenna pointed out our office window down at the public square. This was back in 2000, before there was much Wi-Fi at all, much less "public" Wi-Fi. I'd get a call asking for help, and VNC to the person's computer to fix it, and would sometimes get a "Hey, where are you, anyway? I don't see you in your cube..."
Not so sad, actually (Score:2)
Re:Sad (Score:5, Funny)
Management: "Yes, but let's tell him that he can design his new 'office' anyway he wants -- that way, he'll feel so 'empowered' that he won't realize he's getting screwed by being stuck in the server closet!"
Cheers,
IT
Re:Sad (Score:4, Funny)
A big, strong, sturdy door (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A big, strong, sturdy door (Score:5, Funny)
hmmm. (Score:2)
oh yes, and while you are designing your perfect office don't forget the supermodel PA and view over the river.
Stripper Pole.... (Score:3, Funny)
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
What's wrong with this picture?
Re: (Score:2)
Don't have it as your office (Score:2)
Raised floors don't work here (Score:5, Interesting)
And where are you going to put the ramp to wheel equipment up the extra 2 feet? Unless this is the basement and you can excavate and pour another slab, raised floors either need a lot of room to get into and out of, or they need their own floor (as in, "this entire first floor of this building is for the raised floor"). You won't have much luck convincing an architect to cut a 10x20' hole in a post-tensioned slab.
Just put the rack cabinets where you want them (3.5' of clearance in front, 2' to at least one side and the rear) and the plywood/OSB wall-o-punchdown-blocks where you want them, and install ladder racking between them so that all of the cables are organized and out of the way. Also, delivering each power circuit through conduit to receptacle boxes at the top of each rack cabinet is a really clean way of doing it - it prevents anyone from tripping over any power cords.
I suspect that a large percentage of raised-floor proponents haven't spent much time underneath one.
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This keeps the cables neatly in place and out of the way, is easy to maintain and make changes to, and does not require all the problems you can get with a drop floor. Running another cable in a drop floor can take 20 minutes and half a dozen pulled tiles, (and an RC monster truck helps..) or four minutes and no hassels with a tr
Re:Raised floors don't work here (Score:4, Informative)
That's exactly what I meant by ladder racking (or cable runways [chatsworth.com], or whatever the kids are calling it these days). Yes, the part that you can see looks better with a raised floor, but it sucks so much to run cable under a floor that that's all anyone ever does - no one ever organizes or cleans under there. Sure, they'll take a wet/dry vac to it after an A/C accident, but they won't go back under if they remember they forgot a can of soda pop down there. It'll sit there until the fruit flies eat it all up.
My favorite thing for patch panels/switches is to put them on separate horizontally adjacent racks. A cable goes up from the patch panel to the cable management bracket [swdp.com], over to a gap between the racks, forms a U where all of the slack is stored, then goes into cable management again and then down to its switch port. It looks good with all of the slack in one place, it's easy to make changes, and you don't have cables running directly across the front of equipment (making it impossible to remove, or in some cases, inspect).
And if you do wall-mount the switches and patch panels, use a hinged rack (example [swdp.com]) so you can get to the back of it. And of course, tell your cabler which side should be hinged so they'll be forced to use two extra brain cells to run the cable so it can be hinged.
Hate to be Captain Obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all.. (Score:2)
The next thing i would ask for is 2 computer rooms (raised floor, AC, etc), whack a self-contained room next to it with enough space for the admin folks with windows into the server rooms.
Add onto that either a might big plasma or a projection screen that projects onto a wall (preferably not visible outside the room "for security reasons")
Closet (Score:2)
That's a server room (Score:2)
Four racks, that's a server room. Refuse it. Servers need a radically different environment from humans. You don't want to be there. In a civilized country it's even illegal to work in such an environment without wearing at least hearing protection.
In your real office, make sure you've got a bench seperate from the desk your working at. Use the bench for repairing and installing computers, so the mess won't enter your desk.
Begin? (Score:2)
SSD (Score:2)
New IT office desiderata (Score:2, Insightful)
One essential is either to be near an elevator or on the ground floor. We also should be near a loading dock.
Ideally we would have several kinds of space near each other and on ther same f
Obvious recommendations. (Score:2)
Have the rack of equipment in its own area for climate control and physical security reasons. The machine room should be separated from the office. Also, figure at least 3 feet or 1 meter around the racks to walk around. Far too many people put the racks right up against the wall until "oops, I have to run a wire in back."
Plan for expansion.
Climate control. Redundant systems.
Media sto
Budget (Score:2)
Second Step, trim 10% off the budget.
Third Step, start making a list of items you need in an office.
Fourth Step, take your list, and strip out all the things you "want" but aren't really needs.
Fifth step, add all your wants to the second list and add on.
Then start by taking your budget and prioritizing your needs, and wants, finding less expensive but suitable options for items you need/want but are too pricey. The gold plated air cushioned chair is a combination of need (
Resign (Score:2)
If they're just some patch panels you're ok. Try making your office a place where you *feel* good rather than something where yo
A Big Red Button... (Score:2)
Easy (Score:2)
Step 1. Relocate my office to the shores of Arenal Lake [arenal.net] in Costa Rica.
Step 2. Throw out all the computers.
Step 3. Don't worry about profits.
Yes, I know there's supposed to be a "?????" in there somewhere. Meh. Being a beach bum is it's own reward.
Start by partitioning and keeping it modular (Score:2, Informative)
Get a modular wire system for the cube walls, you might even ask for a modular fiber patch panel system, there is a nice 6 port one on the market. You can run extra cat 5 for the speaker cables.
Run overhead wire rack system.
Cooling is the only thing under the raised floor.
You might want to carpet the cube area with a
Right.... (Score:2)
If they are serious...
- Sound proofing around the racks to protect your hearing.
- An Arena Multi-screen Display from www.digitaltigers.com.
- Large flatscreen TV or two to mounted on the walls to display network monitoring screens
"See, everything is green...."
- Vault d
Dream IT Office (Score:2)
1) A combination lock on the main door.
2) Sound Proof Cabinet for Server Equipment (this is critical)
3) Extra Strength AC (for the Heat)
4) Raised floor beneath the rack area (for static electrical discharge)
5) Seperate Light Switch (I like working in dim lighting)
6) Large (32" or so) LCD panel for the wall - use it for monitoring status of the cabinets
7) a minimum of 500 sq feet (to make up for the server cabinets - and provide room for techni
At the risk of getting serious... (Score:2)
2. You want cable locks on the desktop gear, and if you use a laptop, a way to lock it in a drawer or to a cable system. Ideally, in your position, you don't want to take a laptop with admin info back and forth ever, and certainly not every day, but if you have to do it at all, you want a way to secure it all set up in advance, locks, encryption, programs that call home if it's stolen, and so on.
Add room for more then one IT guy as that may..... (Score:2)
My last office was perfect (Score:2)
A big breasted co-worker across the hall from me in a glass-walled office, a HUGE window near a set of nice pine trees, and any computer(s) that I wanted/needed, any time. No one bothered me, and almost all communication was over email, unless some fool called a meeting, leaving verbal conversations to nothing other than about lunch or bugs.
Also, I had the freedom to decorate my office any way that I chose to, play music, or do just about anything else I wanted to do, as long
Office? (Score:2)
Unless they are silent rack, shut the door and get a cube.
I don't care what people think, every study has shown that background noise reduces productivity.
Now, on with office design:
Minimal. Get a nice looking chair, and ample desk. If you actually NEED it, a book shelf. Anything you can easily look up digitally doesn't need a physical book.
The less stuff you h
what about the fire precautions? (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, consider the safety aspects. If you're going to be the only human being in there, either by design or because any other team members will be absent for any length of time, what will you do if there's a fire in one of the racks, or an electrical accident?
Just installing fire-supression is more cure than prevention and it doesn't stop you getting injured if the fire is between you and the exit.
If you're surrounded by electrical equipment, I would hope you company would enforce a ban on liquids (coffee etc.) in the room. If they don't do this from the outset, they will as soon asn health and safety get sight of theplan - or someone spills a drink over the equipment. How will you deal with that?
Finally, expect that over time, more and more equipment will get moved into the room and it will encroach on your "office" space. Where will you personally draw the line? When it becomes a general store room? When the cleaner starts leaving their buckets on your desk?
Top Priority ... (Score:2)
That way you don't get stuck in the basement.
Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
Ideally, you'd have a ton of cash, plenty of time and space, and clear constraints from your management about growth and uptime. Of course, if any business operated like that, they'd be bankrupt already, so you'll probably get a small stipend for construction and move-in, no idea how many people you'll have to support, and a tiny little chunk in the middle of the building for your new digs.
Once you get what info you can, I'd suggest creating a list of priorities addressing the following issues:
Once you have the server portion of your office set up, I'd look for ways to make yourself comfortable. This is where it gets way more personal, but consider how many people will be on your staff, how much equipment you'll need, a workbench, network monitoring display (and sound system for switching over to movie mode), and always remember to FACE THE DOOR with your monitor in front of you... it's good feng shui, and your boss won't see when you're playing poker online.
Good luck, and have fun!
Cheers!
Insane Idea (Score:2)
Your management is either crazy, insanely stupid or stingy or a combination of these. Even if they deny you the workplace a human beeing shall deserve (have you thought about switching jobs?), they should not deny the security aspects.
OSHA (Score:5, Insightful)
outlets (Score:4, Insightful)
It's mundane, but you can never have too many electrical outlets. Install lots of them, at different levels so you always have one accessible.
Partition into office, foyer, server room (Score:5, Informative)
You want two or three partitions in this room. Refer to the server area as the "server room" and your desk area as your "office." If there's a large enough entry/path area, call that either the "entryway" or the "foyer" ... this establishes the room as a suite and helps distinguish between your space and the IT department's space (even if the dept. is currently just you). Put a nameplate or whatever on the outside of the door (or next to it) that says "IT Suite" or thereabouts (you can even put the subdivisions under it, with your name and "Server Room" getting separate entries).
Give yourself a corner desk, either an L-shape or a U-shape. You want to face the door, so this means one side of the desk follows the wall and another side sticks out into the room so that you have to walk around three sides of it to sit at your chair (this partitions the foyer and the office). Put a big shelving unit in the foyer so that people can come in and grab things without disturbing you (or falling out of your peripheral vision).
The "server room" portion should be well partitioned (hopefully with a floor-to-ceiling wall), specifically for insulation against noise and climate control (make sure those rack fans are pointed away from your desk!). It should also have an operating table, specifically always clear so that if something breaks you have space to work on it. The best way to ensure it is always clear is to have it as an island (against no wall); all walls should have shelves or racks so that the table never gets pushed against a wall. The server room portion should either have a raised floor or a ceiling with easy-access drop-down power conduits and network lines (this solves the issues of an island table, and makes for a much easier environment to maintain). The trash can should be near the door (or outside it) so that the janitor doesn't mess anything up, and the room should lock with a different key than the one to your office (the janitor shouldn't have access to it). You move the trash outside the server room when you go home (if it's full) and move it back into the server room as needed.
Put at least one waist-high shelf right by the door to the server room for cups and food, and leave an empty cup there to help remind people (including yourself) to keep food out of the server "room."
One Man's Horrible Office... (Score:5, Insightful)
Firstly, with that huge amount of rack equipment, you'll need to either separate yourself from it with a wall, or you'll freeze from the constant A/C that is required and go nuts from the noise as previously stated.
For the more mundane details:
- Cable Management. Try to build the room with cable management in mind. Where do the cables go? I wouldn't mention this if you hadn't mentioned the racks. It sounds like you're building a server room that you're going to put your primary machine in. That's great and all, but that's also still "The Server Room" and not "An Office" with carpet and quiet.
- Power sources. Off the ground, preferably over your head.
- Different colored cabling. The more precise you can get this, the easier it is to find/test/figure out problems. "The web servers are on the green cabling and the file server on red" is one of the most appreciated phrases ever when things go wrong.
- Room to grow. You've grown this much so far. In five years you're going to have more machines in there. Can you handle it and still have "your side"?
- Has your management taken into account the noise factor?
- Monitor arm. Now you can install one of these! I heard these were sweet and I think it'd be really cool (dream, right?)
- Fire protection system. Being in the vicinity of those servers will probably put you very close to their fire protection. Have you thought about what systems you want to keep them safe?
- What about Water protection, if that's a consideration?
- RJ11 and RJ45 jacks. Put jacks everywhere, even if they're not being used. You can never have too many jacks or wires run.
- Filing cabinets, shelving, etc. Just wanted to mention that.
- Build a floor plan in a flowcharting program. Map out EVERYTHING. Where you want everything to go and everything to face. (Face the door as someone said earlier). There are plenty of neato Web 2.0 flowcharting programs, or just download a demo copy of Visio or something (if you have a mac, use OmniGraffle -- and for that matter, use it every day for all sorts of things, that program rules!)
- Media storage cabinet. You may want to look into something like this if you're keeping track of server backups, etc.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Dream office? That's easy: 15 steps (Score:5, Funny)
2) Giant, twin mahogany doors
3) Giant windows overlooking the Boston Harbor or some other body of water
4) Balcony overlooking said body of water
5) At least 30 stories from the ground
6) Big desk
7) Comfortable leather chair
8) Hot secretary
9) Not-so-mini mini bar
10) Mini golf game
11) Phone with speaker-phone and an accessible mute button
12) HiFi stereo
13) Nice big-screen television
14) Only computer-related equipment is a laptop (no printer, this is why I have a hot secretary)
15) Hot secretary
The Simple Things In Life... (Score:4, Insightful)
The simpler ones that can still make all the difference however:
As much monitor real estate as possible. IT guys are usually expected to multitask to an insane degree: fix someone's network access, get someone's email back on line, figure out why a server keeps crashing, etc. Trying to do that on one 1280x1024 monitor is masochistic. 1920x1200 24 inch monitors start below $400 now. A pair of 2560x1600 30 inch monitors sounds expensive at $2k until you figure what a miniscule part of a full IT closet that'll really be.
Whiteboards. Cover as much space as you can with them. Jokingly: When people ask you to explain why you spent so much money, you can do lots of impressive looking diagrams. Seriously: Because they're still a great way of communicating ideas.
An iPod touch. Add really simple web interfaces for many of your common tasks (albeit not the security critical ones) and you can now restart servers, reset passwords, all of the day to day drivel, from anywhere within range of the office WiFi. That reduces the number of times you have to ask to use someone's keyboard while you're helping them out (reducing the uncomfortable moments where they've got things they don't want you to see on the desktop or you have to touch their sticky keyboard). It also makes meetings more productive as, rude as it is, you can keep an eye on help requests and fix a lot of things without having to wait/step out. Why the touch rather than iPhone? Simple. It stops working once you're out of range of the network. Thus work stops following you lunch and home.
Backup. Yes, I know everyone'll laugh at me for daring to point this one out. The thing is, most small companies (and being a lone IT guy makes it sounds like that might well be your case) tend to have skimped in the past. One of the areas they'll have skimped on is likely backing things up. No, a RAID array in the newest server doesn't count. Having some means of being able to get back to somewhere close to where you were before the tornado/tsunami/earthquake/senior driver/fire knocked out the whole room is essential. That means having a means to write things to a media that can be stored off site.
A decent phone with a decent headset. If you're getting tech support calls all the time, you want to be able to use a computer to fix their issues while talking - trying to balance a phone on your shoulder isn't condusive to that.
Your own printer. Tech guys seem to generate more dead trees than almost anyone else. Having to walk halfway across the office, only to find someone from marketing is printing an entire book, is a great productivity killer. A cheap laser printer will barely make a dent in a budget and will save you a ton of time.
And finally, in complete contradiction to many of the other posters: A big glass window, a desk near the door, and lots of visibility. There's a reason IT guys are hated: we are antisocial bastards who act like every interaction with every other member of the organization is a trial that's beneath us. If you'd like respect, earn it. If you want people to think you live in your fortress of solitude and judge them, do that. If you'd like them to see you as a hardworker with nothing to hide, show them that instead.
Space Planning (Score:4, Insightful)
1) You want a serve room to hold 4 racks.
2) You want to place your 'office' alongside the server room
Assumptions
3) a Rack occupies a space 1m wide x 1m deep x 2m tall (some racks are 800mm x 800mm - it depends on the rack).
4) a rack needs a floor void below it and should have a gap between itself and the ceiling tiles of 0.5m)
Comments
a) You need to allow for expansion so commit for 1 extra rack in your plan.
this take the floor space to a minimum of 1m x 5m.
b) You should allow a 1 m walkway on all four sides!
firstly you want to get into all the front/back of a cabinet plus both ends.
so this takes the minimum to a 3m x 7m space.
if a fire breaks out half way along your exit route on one side you want an escape route the other way round.
c) You need space at one end for
- air conditioning unit
- floor standing UPS and Batteries (don't forget the battery package is going to be potentially large).
- a master power switch and a breaker switch.
each of the 30A twist-lock sockets needs a separate breaker.
depending on your power requirements you should allow for at two twist-lock ( IEC_60309 or similar) sockets per cab.
I would suggest a bay no less than 4m wide by 2m deep at one end of the room.
d) floor height & entryway
- access
most office space has a quite low raised flooring void. This is sufficient for normal power/data wiring.
however for comms rooms its a good idea to DOUBLE this void height.
Allow space for the LARGEST item to go through your doors. That may mean a FULL HEIGHT doorway,
the door may be a double or single+flap wide.
allow a RAMP not a step from your normal floorspace into the comms room.
- raised flooring suspension
allow for extra 'pillars' in the comms room to cope with the weight, especially for the UPS and COOLING.
- data cabling routes
allow for two routes IN/OUT of the room and establish a primary and secondary route. make that the fibre
loops go in one route and out the other. Allow for slack length on all cables.
- comms room security.
establish a WHO NEEDS to access this room list.
Security, Health & Safety / Fire Wardens, Compliance, IT
mandate an exclusion for everyone but IT when unaccompanied. Get the backing of the Directors & HR to control it.
use a security system to exclude unauthorised access and restrict dissemination of the ID codes.
e) Montitoring
consider an environmental monitor (APC have a range of 'wallbots / rackbot' equipment).
add a monitor to your COOLING and UPS to alert you of major failures.
f) Fire suppression
options are
GAS - expensive and takes up extra space. requires a sealed environment and separate maintenance.
WATER - from the normal sprinkler systems. wrecks your equipement.
if you're going the water route then ensure your sprinkler heads have CAGES of heavy mesh put around
each head and secured to the ceiling tiles. Then when you hit one with a ladder you don't have a wet-room.
g) Lighting.
make sure the lighting guys put the lights over the walk-routes and not over the cabinets.
yes I've seen this done.
h) Power requirements
feed a manufacturer with your equipment list and get them to run up the quote.
make sure you give them an autonomy time that is realistic.
does your new site have a backup power (deisel generator ?) that cuts
Feng Shui. I am *not* kidding. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll continue the list with some random stuff that comes to mind, some of which others here have mentioned allready:
1.) Wallcolors, Plaster-Textureing. There are countless possibilities here - check them out. Be sure to check out the options for organic interior building materials aswell. Consider coloring or plastering different sections of the walls with different styles.
2.) I like Zen-Style. Blends well with a high-tech enviroment too. A sleek simple real-wood desk and side-table may be all it needs to pimp your enviroment just enough. Don't save in the wrong place, plan your setup and you might find that two neat pieces blend well with that glass-enclosure rack-shelf and leave you room to breathe and think.
3.) Make the rack nice to look at and quiet. Read: Multi-Layer glass all around. Tell your boss it needs a custom enclosure if you must. Consider giving the glass-enclosure-rack a prominent position in the room where you can reach the backdoor super easy without having to move it. A well-positioned fixed installation can be a neat interior feature. (check feng-shui on this if you're out of ideas - try out the looks in a 3D programm if the need be
4.) Plan your decoration. Crappy, tacky generic office-type decoration sucks. You'll know that once you've hand-picked one or two posters of pictures for your office and leave it at that. Plan the position of them and plan your lighting accordingly. Do all your pinwall type stuff on your computer. You're a geek, take advantage of that. You can completely void reality of all ugly work-related stuff and still get work done. (Just thinking of the shitty cube decorations posted at regular intervals here on
5.) Visit a few offices of the creative guys and girls. Better-running web agencies have a fable for stylish and hip work enviroments. They have the ideas aswell. Ripp off whereever you can and don't be ashamed of it. After all, they use OSS on their webservers, don't they? Sumo beanbags, Stokke Balans (arm)chairs, hand-rafted realwood shelves on oversized industrial-style rollers (built one myself - super-easy to move around), selected wallsections with crazy-ass grafity besides intentionally blank walls. You get the picture. There are countless websites with picture of cool offices around the globe. Do some research.
6.) You a Developer? Software Team Lead? Blackboard! And I mean an old-school (literally!) real-wood big ass black (literally!) board. If you can't find one, plan it's size and position, bolt a board to the wall and paint it with black-board paint. This little german software shop did it right - surf around their site a little and check out their pictures --> http://freiheit.com/ [freiheit.com] . I'd actually like to work there just judging by the fotos.
7.) Ikke-Bana. (Ancient Japanese Art of Flower Arrangement) Check it out. Again: This is no joke.
8.) Parquet. *Real* parquet. And nothing else. Industrial parquet actually can easyly be cheaper than industrial wall-to-wall carpeting. Bug your Boss about it if it's not company policy. Maybe encourage your boss to join in on a little office-pimping spree. With the right tone of voice and mood you can get your entire departement to consider office interiors a little more.
9.) High Desk/Standing Desk. Somebody mentioned this allready. Really neat idea. We sit *all* day and that is *bad*. Space to run a few circles and a place to stand and work at is a very neat thing if you have the space to spare. Spec your PC casing to fit a standing desk if the need be - or add a second screen to your setup. You can get desks that have motors in them to lift them to standing height. N
Start Simple (Score:3, Insightful)
Server Room area:
Anti-static "false" flooring (whatever it is called, that allows the floor to "breathe" and circulate air.
Wire trays hanging from the ceiling to manage cables.
Twice as much dedicated power as you'll ever need.
Dedicated AC unit for the server room.
Four-post server racks (no need for panels if the room is secured)
Preferrably a glass wall between the server equipment and yourself.
color-coded Cat5
Room to grow (an extra rack or two)
Room to walk around with a new server
A small table
Office:
Desk
Computer
Phone
Comfortable Chair
Comfortable Keyboard/Mouse
Plenty of Filing Cabinets and shelves
Workbench with plenty of network cables, power, non-digital KVM, etc. (I can't stand digital KVM's that don't get detected at startup unless the focus is on the computer during boot.)
Good speakers
A nice soundproof door that cannot be permanently unlocked. (to prevent you from accidentally leaving the server room vulnerable.
At least one wall to hang posters, comics, calendars, etc.
A dry-erase board if you are into that sort of thing.
Legroom
And of course a storage closet. You WILL get way too much stuff when other people decide they don't want it, and they don't want to wait for the recycler to come pick it up.
The comfort items seem silly to a boss at times, but they make a world of difference when it comes to how much stress you can handle.
My office is one out of the three cubicles in my room, and a portion of the slanted, non-air-conditioned closet with water-based fire prevention is my "server room" that houses a single rack. The rest of the servers are on a desk in the storage closet, under my desk, or next to the Web Team's desk. ALWAYS plan-ahead, don't just "Get it done", or you'll wind up with fully soaked servers and people turning off servers that they think are just normal computers.
Re:They're going to stow you away in the server ro (Score:2)
Whenever I go into the server room (no, they gave me a desk outside of the cupboard), I always wonder whether it's the cold or the noise that's making me work quicker than usual.
Ah well, a good start to the new year, poor bastard.
Re:They're going to stow you away in the server ro (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Server room. So cold that you need to add two layers of clothing when you go in. It should have tiled and raised floors and separate AC power circuit.
2. Secure storage area, your server room is not a dumping ground for unused hardware, boxes of wires, software and whatever else that has a plug.
3. Work area, in addition to a desk with triple screen linked to a kvm for your desktop and laptop you need a work surface on which you can do hardware repair and configuration.
Sliding glass door. (Score:5, Insightful)
This also will keep you from freezing to death because of the AC.
(And do make sure it has good AC. Those servers will thank you.)
Re: (Score:2)
Build a server closet/room that's connected to your office, and put a big glass window in between so you can see all of the blinky lights.
Re:Avoid wireless (Score:5, Informative)
Dude...are you aware of how much energy the Sun puts out in the radio spectrum? Or lightning storms? Get a wideband receiver and tune it to 1 GHz or so, near the wireless frequencies, and turn down the squelch. All that static noise you hear is natural radiation on radio frequencies. Been around since God was in diapers.
And while we're on the subject, you might google around for any successful example of radiofrequency EM radiation being used to cause a chemical reaction (which is the only way it could damage your precious bodily fluids). You won't find any. The photon energy in the RF spectrum is absurdly small compared to typical chemical bond energies. Heck, it's way less than the photon energy of infrared radiation, which of course your own body emits in copious quantities.
Your comment reminds me of a James Thurber story, in which his grandmother (who grew up in the 19th century) insisted that all the electrical outlets in her house be stopped up, because she was sure invisible electricity was leaking out of them, spreading out across the floor, and could be causing all kinds of mischief. After all, human beings did not evolve around electricity...