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:First investment

[ILongForDarkness]

No not at all ;) Actually the last three posts I got in reply mentioned unions, and fair enough. I read a article recently (can't remember where, though I subscribe to TechRepublic and the Code Project so I wouldn't be supprised if it was one of them) about this kind of thing. The arguement was that IT people want to be treated as "professionals" not lowly hourly workers, so are more likely to take a salary position, and put up with working 50+ hr weeks even though in most places even salary employees are entitled to get paid for their time if it is over 44hrs. Anyways, it was well reasoned, and does point out some of the silly things people in the field do.

I might be a rarity, I'm an hourly IT worker. I bill for my time if I get called back in, at least 4hrs plus travel expenses. My reasoning is: getting to work once a day I pay for, if you want me back you pay for it. So far my boss has lived with that. I'm a one of though, so have some leverage. Funny, the finance department said they didn't have enough work for a second IT guy, so instead pay me OT and travel expenses out the wazoo :) As for avoiding salary my reasoning is: if my first 40 hours was worth 75k to you, then my next 40 hours is worth at least another 75k to you. A factory gets a rush job they bill the customer more, and pay their employees extra. A factory machine goes down, they pay the millwrights OT to get it up and running asap. Same should go with IT. I don't mind putting the hours in, but I'll be damned before I'll burn my gas and spend my evening working for free.

Dream Office?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd make my dream office with blackjack... and hookers! In fact, forget the office...

Sad

[TheRealFixer]

That's not an office. That's a "stick the IT guy in the closet so we don't have to spend money on him" room.

Re:Sad

[IntelliTubbie]

That's not an office. That's a "stick the IT guy in the closet so we don't have to spend money on him" room.

Management: "Yes, but let's tell him that he can design his new 'office' anyway he wants -- that way, he'll feel so 'empowered' that he won't realize he's getting screwed by being stuck in the server closet!"

Cheers,
IT

Huh?

[Cally]

As the local IT Guy, I've been asked to design my new office from the ground up.

What's wrong with this picture?

My recommendations

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Separate your work area from the racks with a wall.
2) Soundproof & insulate that wall or your office will be noisy & 65 degrees F year round.
3) Make sure there's extra room in the server side of it, or your office will get taken over.
4) Your desk should face the door. Otherwise, people will always walk up behind you.
5) Get a filing cabinet, some drawers and some shelves to keep your stuff in. Whenever you get paperwork, file it if it would be troublesome to get another copy or you'll refer to it often, recycle it otherwise.

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.

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.