People make mistakes, it is in our nature to fail and get back on track. But when those mistakes happen in a data centers, consequences can be disastrous for workers and companies that trusted their precious data would be saved in there.

So if you work at a data center, try to avoid the next mistakes:

Trip on cables

If cable layout wasn’t done properly and wires are all over the place, on the floor, hanging from the ceiling or circled around servers, someone may get tangled on them and fall. Consequence: an injury employee and, obviously, lost data. So measure and cut the cables correctly and keep them organized.

Drink spills

It may sound like people should know this because, you know, common sense, but it happens. So do not let your IT staff enter to the server room with drinks on their hands. If by some casualty of destiny, a drop of that drink spills onto or into equipment it will simply stop working.

Power failures

Energy is data centers’ life and, oh irony, their worst enemy. So make sure all the systems have battery backups and that generators and power sources are working at their optimum capacity. Prevent electricity failures as much as you can.

Security omissions

Having a control of the employees that have access to the server room is essential to avoid data to be stole. So don’t give away keys to everyone and keep a sheet with the names of the privileged ones that earned your trust.

Dirtiness

If a CEO of a company that pays for your service goes to the data center unannounced and finds a pigpen, you’ll lose a client. So try your workplace doesn’t look like Butthead and Beavis house, keep the place clean!

Documentation negligence

Don’t forget to documentate everything that happens in the data center, every network your map out or domain credentials you used, in cause one day you have to call sick and someone else has to keep track of your work. If you are not doing it, one day destiny maybe think it’s time to play with you and mess everything.

Having too much fun

Do not use your data center as a desktop computer. Don’t check Facebook or Twitter, don’t invite your friends to play Call of Duty, don't make a LAN party in the data center. Don’t. Viruses can get into your servers from end users, but please don’t let those kind of mistakes initiate in your network core.

Forgotten obligations

Don’t just remote on the data center, visit it regularly even if it is just for a while to check for temperature or cabling. Give the data center the time it needs to avoid yourself big problems.

Tourist tricks

If you decide to show the world how awesome your data center is and organize a tour so press and curious people can see it, be sure none of those tourist is so inquisitive it gets away from rest of the group and causes a mess or you will regret it.

Tiredness mistakes. Oops we meant 10

If you already spent 10 hours of your day trying to solve a problem and couldn’t do it, don’t intent to spend ten hours or your night on that too because you won’t fix everything, instead you could just cause more problems. Neither you nor the clients want that. Don’t try to be a hero. Be clever.

Source: TheRepublic.com