Having spent many years around server rooms and telephone offices , the magnitude of the systems that support information technology doesn't surprise me.

What does occasionally give me a start is that all of these diverse processes have "a guy" attached to them who is the sole master of that process. The cooling equipment has "an AC guy" . The power equipment usually has two "guys" , the electrician and sometimes the vendor who sold it to you. The fire system has a "guy" and so on. I don't know about you but I don't really like having a bunch of "guys" . Mostly because, in closely integrated systems, if the "guys" don't agree , you are the one who loses out.

We all have our stories about finger pointing and while occasionally amusing , they are almost always not pleasant. So how do you avoid the finger pointing "The UPS guy said that the electrician had to......" scenarios?

One way would be to have one "guy" who deals with all the other "guys", a General Contractor "guy" who deals with all the subcontractor "guys". This works pretty well in the construction industry so why not adapt that concept.

Here's a real life conversation I had a few days ago, Facilities Manager:" I need to move the cooling units in my data center, can you help me?' Me: "Absolutely , let's talk about what we need to accomplish." Facilities Manager: " We need to move this unit over to this wall so that the airflow is better and so that we can access the inside of the unit easier," (This part also adds to the One Guy argument, but we'll get into that later) Me: " Okay , that makes sense, let me get one of my HVAC people in here to line out what all we will need to do." Facilities Manager: I guess we need to get someone in to handle the changes in the raised floor?" Me:"  We can take care of that part." Facilities Manager: " and the electrical wiring......." Me:" I have that covered as well."

The reason for highlighting my conversation is not because I want to tell you how great I am but because I don't think this is so very remarkable, its the way this particular conversation is supposed to go. However, in the real world , we all know how this type pf project usuallly proceeds, 3 or 4 different "guys" from that many different companies and nobody takes ownership of the whole project , except you of course.

I would be really interested in thoughts and opinions on the "One Guy" concept. What systems in the data center (or anypart of the building) would benefit from Single Point of Contact (SPOC from my telephone days).

Thanks

Gary Dunlap