I agree. While it is not perfect it has improved a lot over the last few decades.

One of the problems with IT people is that they are rarely well versed in the systems that keep their stuff running.

It is amazing to me how many servers are plugged into a UPS bought at Radio Shack that is in turn plugged into the wall outlet.

generators that run on diesel need to have the diesel fuel tested and/or filtered periodically. it may even need to be replaced occasionally.

some data centers don't routinely test the automatic transfer switch that actually switches the power from the utility to their backup generator.

I read once of a case where the data center security system had a UPS backup but when the UPS battery died during a power failure, people were no longer able to get in because the card reader stopped working.

The flaws with halon suppression systems caused a lot of data centers to go with sprinklers. These days dry sprinklers are pretty common and very reliable. they are very common in unheated spaces like warehouses.

BTW, the reason sprinklers leak is because they use the thinnest pipe they can find to save money. It is specially made and only used by the sprinkler industry.

the thing is if your sprinkler goes off it does not matter much if it is water or not. you have a huge problem that is only solved by having a redundant data center several hours away.

unless you are a really large IT center, it is often very cost effective to just rent capacity from a commercial data center, especially for your backup needs.

I don't think that FM-200 has the same issues with long-term damage to equipment that Halon had. Most of the datacenters I go into on a day to day basis use FM-200; seeing one with dry-pipe sprinklers is unusual.

Once upon a time I had a customer with wet-pipe sprinklers...and a baking tray underneath one that was leaking, with a little tube taking the water out of the baking tray out of the datacenter and into a drain in the bathroom. It was an impressive bit of engineering. I was told that the one server that the leak destroyed cost them $50k to replace, without regard to the downtime cost.

There's a reason my nom-de-Internet is what it is -- if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong in my presence. I've managed to avoid being present for an inadvertent fire suppressant discharge, however.