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GWOT Data Center
Aug. 3rd, 2018 08:20 am[CLIENT] CONFIDENTIAL
Data Center Precis
Welcome! This purpose built facility is one of the largest privately held data centers on the West Coast. Whether you are a [Client] employee, a contractor or a vendor, we greatly appreciate your work in making this facility the best in its class.
Very little information is available about this facility publicly and we need to keep it that way. All persons authorized to enter the facility must sign a ferocious Non Disclosure Agreement. Due to the nature of this facility, elements of its protection involve the National Security Act of 1950 and carry criminal as well as substantial civil penalties for inappropriate disclosure.
You have completed a comprehensive Compliance Agreement in which authorized paths for reporting concerns are addressed in detail. In particular, safety concerns are to be escalated to [Client] Safety Director; management concerns are to be escalated to the Office of the Site Location Executive; personnel concerns are to be addressed to the site VP of Human Resources; and security concerns to the Facility Security Executive. In no case are concerns to be escalated outside the organization to uncleared persons. We are completely committed to compliance with local, state and Federal laws and regulations. The first and only point of escalation outside this organization is the [REDACTED FOR SECURITY REASONS] Inspector General, which can be reached at [REDACTED].
[In other words, if you call CAL-OSHA you will be criminally prosecuted for violating the National Security Act.]
The first and most essential element in this facility's protection is discretion. You may observe in industry publications or from prior employment that the claims of other organizations ("the largest data center in California!" "the best uptime in the industry" etc) are inaccurate. We must not correct their misapprehensions. We are not competing to prove we are the best. We are already the best and we will get even better.
The second and almost as essential element in this facility's protection is redundancy. There is never to be a single path by which this facility and her capabilities could be taken out of service. From power to water, from fire and life safety to on site technical support, from warehousing of critical components to massive parallel operations, there is never to be a single switch or valve or control that could 'take us down.'
The third essential element in this facility's protection is complexity. We embrace chaos. There are industry accepted standards. We follow them. We also, in parallel, utterly reject them. Portions of this facility will be familiar to anyone who has worked on a data center. Portions of this facility will be utterly unfamiliar and exotic. We do not use "a" technology or operating practice. We use "all" technologies and operating practices.
A small, relatively non secure (but not to be discussed) example: the fire safety for this complex is built on physical, systems engineering, procedural and human factors controls. Areas are physically separated from each other. Industry standard smoke and heat detection is used with preaction systems and fire sprinklers. Fire protection engineering has taken into account many scenarios, some very exotic such as nearby nuclear strike and deliberate armed intrusion. But the most essential factor is the human element - not only are trained firefighting personnel on site at all times, 24/7/365, but we are prepared as part of disaster recovery processes to restore services while suppressing a building fire, in parallel.
If you are not the kind of technician willing to run cable while firefighters are working two aisles over, we have made a poor hiring decision. This should intrigue, excite or perhaps bore you ... but we demand your intelligent, willing commitment to this Data Center's success.
You will never work in a place where keeping the servers running is more important to the protection of human life and national security.
Data Center Precis
Welcome! This purpose built facility is one of the largest privately held data centers on the West Coast. Whether you are a [Client] employee, a contractor or a vendor, we greatly appreciate your work in making this facility the best in its class.
Very little information is available about this facility publicly and we need to keep it that way. All persons authorized to enter the facility must sign a ferocious Non Disclosure Agreement. Due to the nature of this facility, elements of its protection involve the National Security Act of 1950 and carry criminal as well as substantial civil penalties for inappropriate disclosure.
You have completed a comprehensive Compliance Agreement in which authorized paths for reporting concerns are addressed in detail. In particular, safety concerns are to be escalated to [Client] Safety Director; management concerns are to be escalated to the Office of the Site Location Executive; personnel concerns are to be addressed to the site VP of Human Resources; and security concerns to the Facility Security Executive. In no case are concerns to be escalated outside the organization to uncleared persons. We are completely committed to compliance with local, state and Federal laws and regulations. The first and only point of escalation outside this organization is the [REDACTED FOR SECURITY REASONS] Inspector General, which can be reached at [REDACTED].
[In other words, if you call CAL-OSHA you will be criminally prosecuted for violating the National Security Act.]
The first and most essential element in this facility's protection is discretion. You may observe in industry publications or from prior employment that the claims of other organizations ("the largest data center in California!" "the best uptime in the industry" etc) are inaccurate. We must not correct their misapprehensions. We are not competing to prove we are the best. We are already the best and we will get even better.
The second and almost as essential element in this facility's protection is redundancy. There is never to be a single path by which this facility and her capabilities could be taken out of service. From power to water, from fire and life safety to on site technical support, from warehousing of critical components to massive parallel operations, there is never to be a single switch or valve or control that could 'take us down.'
The third essential element in this facility's protection is complexity. We embrace chaos. There are industry accepted standards. We follow them. We also, in parallel, utterly reject them. Portions of this facility will be familiar to anyone who has worked on a data center. Portions of this facility will be utterly unfamiliar and exotic. We do not use "a" technology or operating practice. We use "all" technologies and operating practices.
A small, relatively non secure (but not to be discussed) example: the fire safety for this complex is built on physical, systems engineering, procedural and human factors controls. Areas are physically separated from each other. Industry standard smoke and heat detection is used with preaction systems and fire sprinklers. Fire protection engineering has taken into account many scenarios, some very exotic such as nearby nuclear strike and deliberate armed intrusion. But the most essential factor is the human element - not only are trained firefighting personnel on site at all times, 24/7/365, but we are prepared as part of disaster recovery processes to restore services while suppressing a building fire, in parallel.
If you are not the kind of technician willing to run cable while firefighters are working two aisles over, we have made a poor hiring decision. This should intrigue, excite or perhaps bore you ... but we demand your intelligent, willing commitment to this Data Center's success.
You will never work in a place where keeping the servers running is more important to the protection of human life and national security.
