[TriLUG] Have you ever worked at a Data Center?

[Keith Woodie]

I have worked for a triangle company in a data center.  I would imagine the
best way to describe the life in a data center scenario like the one your
describing is that it's a tight knit family.  I don't currently work in the
data center for my company, but I always felt like I had someone to bounce
ideas with and when I needed something done quickly the right person is just
a cube row away instead of insulated by buildings or distances away.

I would venture to say that a data center job is the most insulated you can
be from the business.  The business users generally don't know that the data
center even exists or that people actually work there.  This enables you to
have isolation much like that of an far off distance land that is ruled by a
monarchy far far away.  One of the best things I remember about working at
the data center was the team building and luncheon events we did to boost
morale, because we didn't have any windows.

Bad things to know:
    1) Promotions can be difficult, because of the lack of visibility.
    2) Operations organizations generally keep budgets tight (at least they
do at my company)
    3) Don't count on having a ton of people doing the same thing your
doing.  To achieve #2 most companies either cut positions when people leave
or higher college kids that don't have any experience.


Hope this helps!  Data center life was some of the best and fondest times I
have had at my company.

Keith Woodie


On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Edwin Castillo <edwin at wiredbytes.com>wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering if any of you have ever worked (or currently work) at a Data
> Center? I have worked most of my career for Value-Added Resellers (VARs)
> and
> Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). My experience is that working for a
> VAR
> is completely different than working for an IT Team at a particular
> company.
> What has been your experience?
>
> I have purchased services from data centers in the past, but I'm sure that
> the customer view is very different than the behind the scenes employee
> view.
>
> I ask this question because I am looking into a position at a Raleigh Data
> Center and would like to hear what the Triluggers have to say. Thanks.
>
> Regards,
> Edwin Castillo
> --
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