Data Center Staff Will Sleep Among the Racks For London Olympics 210
1sockchuck writes "Staff at Interxion's London data center are ready to hunker down during the Olympic Games this summer, nestled in snug sleeping pods adjacent to the racks. The arrangement will ensure that the facility will be fully-staffed if London's transit system is taxed by the huge crowds expected for the Games. While staff in many industries might object to a plan that expects them to sleep in their office, data center firms have a primary calling of keeping their facilities operational at all times. Is this too much readiness, or just enough?"
Depends on pay (Score:4, Insightful)
Are they getting paid to be on duty 24/7?
Sounds kind of fun, actually. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, it's reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)
If....
a) It's for a short time (check)
b) It's critical (check)
c) There's enough people on-staff to rotate who's doing this (not sure)
d) There's substantial reward/overtime/extra PTO/something for doing something like this (not sure)
So, it's 50% reasonable, maybe completely reasonable IN THIS CASE.
Re:Depends on pay (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. In the US we call it being salaried.
It's the Olympics (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the preeminent world class sporting event that is only held every 4 years for which most of the entire world tunes in. And for which you'd be lucky to get a job at for only once in your lifetime. Wouldn't you expect people to go that little extra distance - If not for the money, but for the pride of saying you contributed?
Re:Havn't they ever heard of shifts? (Score:5, Insightful)
From description...it sounds like the London transportation system may be overwhelmed and they simply may not be able to get replacement staff in the center in a timely manner.
Re:Havn't they ever heard of shifts? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is simply risk management. There is a risk that staff might have trouble commuting, so they are mitigating that risk.
Re:Havn't they ever heard of shifts? (Score:5, Insightful)
So yeah, knowing the density of data centres in the area and how close they will be to the Olympics, this sounds like a pretty damn sensible idea, to me.
Re:It's the Olympics (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a silly sporting event that happens every few years. It's not like they're landing on Mars for the first time or something.
Re:Oh, that's bullshit! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, is this company _asking_ people to be "asleep at the job"?
No, they're merely resting their eyes during the hours that they are likely not being paid overtime for, that's all.
Re:Sounds kind of fun, actually. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, if they are the types who actually enjoy their jobs and get along with their coworkers this could be a lot of fun. It might get old towards the end, but I personally wouldn't have a problem with it. If nothing else you'd be much closer as a group after something like that, plus I bet they'll all have fun stories to tell when it's over. Not to mention that if they have a decent employer who knows what they're asking for there'll probably be free food for that time.
The only point of friction might be optimal sleeping spots. No one wants to sleep in the hot aisle, and you'd probably need earplugs.
Re:Sounds kind of fun, actually. (Score:4, Insightful)
Any work request made to an employee who doesn't have any force behind them is never truly voluntary.
People will remember you aren't a "team player". Of course those same people get to go home at night.
Maybe they're not getting paid... (Score:4, Insightful)
But there's money to be made in subletting a flat during an event like the Olympics. I lived in Lake Placid for the 1980 games and my father's department head at the college rented his house for $30k for the two weeks.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's the Olympics (Score:4, Insightful)
It's great that you enjoy it, but different people like different things, and that's fine. It's fine as long as you don't expect *others* (who may not be interested in the least) to go that extra distance for it.
Personally I find it hard to see past the betrayal of every ideal the Olympic games ever stood for, the cheating in form of drug use, the abuse of children to push some nation's medal lists, the obscene waste of money to build an unnecessary sports infrastructure and the organized corruption which drives the selection of the location.
Re:Havn't they ever heard of shifts? (Score:5, Insightful)
Interxion have got their message about how seriously they take their customers uptime and how far they go to plan for eventualities out to readers of Data Center Knowledge (and now to Slashdot). I'd say money well spent, regardless of whether anyone will use the pods for more than publicity shots (or even if Interxion seriously expected them to).
That said, I'm not sure that Atlanta compares to London in terms of aging, and seriously creaking transport infrastructure. e.g. Atlanta has what is supposedly world's airport handling 90m travelers on its five runways; Heathrow handles 70m on just two runways both of which operate at over 98% capacity (plans to add a third were dropped when the current government was elected). The Victorian metro system is similarly overloaded having the distinction of being the oldest in the world while having to serve a population of almost 8 million.
Re:Oh, that's bullshit! (Score:4, Insightful)
I for one, fully expect that rack mount rails will be the only thing that moves in East London during the olympics.
Employees vs. The Firm (Score:5, Insightful)
While staff in many industries might object to a plan that expects them to sleep in their office, data center firms have a primary calling of keeping their facilities operational at all times
I love how the summary neatly dismisses the objections of the employees by citing the goal of the corporation. I can see this working well for a variety of other problems that the data center firms face, but let's just jump to the one the MBAs are salivating over:
While staff in many industries might object to working without pay or benefits, data center firms have a primary calling of keeping their costs low and profits high