How Would You Design Your Dream Office?

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."

Comments

First investment

[jachim69]

The best pair of noise canceling headphones you can find. 4 racks of equipment in your office? I'd go bonkers in about a day.

Re:They're going to stow you away in the server ro

[mrsmiggs]

Exactly you can't work in the same room as servers and network equipment an IT Department in an office needs ideally three areas.

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.

Priorities

[ndrw]

I'd suggest you need more info before you go start your dream office, this would be my list:

1. Budget - How much can you spend?
   
2. Space - How much room can you take up?
   
3. Uptime - How long do the systems need to run?
   
4. Growth - How many people and how many servers in the life of the building?
   
5. Due Date - How long do you have to design? How long to build?
   

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:

1. Space - you need enough space to hold the racks, remember workspace in front and behind the gear.
   
2. Electricity - a few wall sockets aren't going to cut it for anything more than half a dozen servers. Depending on budget, try getting a sub-panel with emergency cut-off, UPS on main, and possibly diesel generator. Do you know what your required disaster recovery and uptime are?
   
3. Air Conditioning - four racks of gear can generate quite a lot of heat, work with a local heating and air conditioning vendor to get TWO cooling units and automatic switchover between them in the event of thermal events (heat beyond a set limit).
   
4. Racks - standardize and buy extra! You'll always need more space later, so build it out now, while the budget is already in the works. I'm a big fan of the four post style with square hole racks right now, a lot of new servers (including blade chassis) are coming with quick snap square brackets on the rails, so you can mount them quickly!
   
5. Sound dampening - there's no way you can work right next to four racks of gear, unless you're already deaf. PLEASE find a way to get some kind of wall and door between you and the gear, put a window in if you have to be able to see the equipment.
   
6. Fire suppression - depending on budget, these can be worth the high price for an energen, halon, etc. system.
   

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!

Become Mr. invisible

[petes_PoV]

4) Your desk should face the door. Otherwise, people will always walk up behind 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 coming into the room.

Re:My recommendations

[Ifni]

6) a fifth and sixth rack, or at least the space to put them. Seriously, plan to grow anywhere from 25-50% over the next five years unless you have reason to believe otherwise. This was hinted at in item 3, but warrants clarification/repeating.