Server Room in the Women's Restroom

Some data centers use biometric scanners to control access. Others use ID cards. Here’s an access control strategy that probably never occurred to you: put the data center in the women’s restroom. The Daily WTF ^[1] shares the unusual story of a company that was forced to relocate its offices within its building, with implications for access to its existing server room. Here’s an excerpt from the internal email:

As you all are aware, we have new tenants that have moved into the 2nd floor suites. The access to the server room is now via the women’s bathroom. There will be a sign on the woman’s door that can be changed from OPEN to CLOSED and vice versa. Should you need to enter the server room, please change the sign to CLOSED. Once you are done, please change it back to OPEN. Once you enter the bathroom, you will be able to access the server room via the handicapped stall. Please close the stall door prior to entry, just in case someone doesn’t see that the bathroom is closed. I know this isn’t ideal, but if we adhere to this protocol, I don’t think anyone will be disrupted.

Is this story for real? There are few details, but there’s a photo. Read The Stalled Server Room ^[1] to see it.

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Article printed from Data Center Knowledge: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com

URL to article: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/06/25/server-room-in-the-womens-restroom-2/

URLs in this post:

[1] Daily WTF: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Stalled-Server-Room.aspx

[2] Rich Miller: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/author/richm/

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