Who's Your Data?

Engineers who are into online gaming (97.3%) have developed their own language to communicate complex ideas and exclude outsiders. Outsiders include management, salespeople, most colleagues, the bus driver, Mom and Dad, the barista at the local coffee shop and at times, even themselves. When an engineer wants something new for the data center this presents a slight problem. It’s called communication. Many engineers do not know how to communicate unless it is in Vulcan. Hence the problem.

When it comes time to request a new piece of hardware for the Data Center the engineer has a limited bag of tricks.

Approach 1.0 is to obfuscate. “The system requires dual HBA’s in order to maintain optimal transfer speed and maximize the caching capability of the application”. Purchase request rejected.

Approach 2.0 is the creative lie. “If you don’t do this, your e-mail will disappear in the middle of the day and you will burn in hell”. Rejected again.

Approach 3.0 is the desperate Hail-Mary in honor of Gene Roddenberry. The engineer says, “I'poprah fasei setebihk t'ovsotuhl-ozhika”.* unless the boss says, “Isha nash-veh Vuhlkansu - pontal na'sochya”, ** he is screwed.

There is approach 3.5 that combines the essence of the Vulcan and Romulan races (horrors! can there be such a thing!). It’s called, collaboration for mutual interest. In this approach the data center engineer works with the business types to build a case for the purchase. This means delving into yucky things like return-on-investment and staying away from discussions about how many cooling fans you need to keep the server at ambient temperature. Many of our customers have had good luck with this approach and successfully built out their data centers. Live long and prosper.

*Now-receive this-here symbol of-total-logic
**I too am a Vulcan, bred to peace