How to Prevent Injuries in the Data Center
The importance of data centers is a thoroughly researched and exhausted topic. Let’s not go there. Wondering what the inside of a data center looks like? If you land in the middle of a data center, all you would see are rows and rows of cabinets with heavy looking servers. Oh, and a massive amount of cables. Today’s data center is the modern day equivalent of a maze. Now imagine navigating through it. Scared you’ll trip over a wire and hit your head on the cabinet? Now think of the guy who works there. No one told him that working in a data center could possibly be life threatening!
This is what happens when a new client signs on for data center services. The client is allocated a rack in the data center where he can store his equipments. Once the space is allocated, the client just brings in his servers and arranges them in a particular fashion to minimize heating. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But here is the catch. Remember the long winding cables and the heavy looking servers we were talking about? Now, each server weighs between 50 and 500 pounds. These servers are traditionally brought in and lifted onto the racks manually. Repeated lifting and moving of servers has resulted in increased cases of back related injuries, stress or strain in the data centers.
According to The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics titled Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Requiring Days Away from Work 2009, 37% of the total injury cases requiring days away from work were back-related, 42% of sprains, strains, and tears were the result of overexertion and 60% of total workplace injuries requiring time away from work was back injuries. Not that I am saying all the injured people on that survey worked in a data center.
Is there an easier way to shift the servers in the data center? Thankfully, there is. Several companies tried to forklift the servers; but then, we all heard of how a federal contractor sued IBM for $1.4 million when a server fell off a fork lift and the companies reconsidered their stand on forklifts and are now opting for a server lift.
What are server lifts? They are server handling solutions that are designed to lift and move the servers effectively, thus speeding up the deployment process. A number of industries are coming up with designs to manufacture a perfect server lift to suit the data center needs. Companies like ServerLIFT have managed to design automated server lifts with features specifically designed for the data center so that the servers may be loaded onto the bottom rung of the rack and the top- most rung with equal ease. These server lifts come with weight specifications up to which the lift can load the servers. What’s more, they are compact and easy to navigate in any data center environment.
Here is a video from serverlift.com. I hope this will help you to get good understanding of their product.
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