Re: Design deficiencies
Not a datacentre, but I do know someone who had a cellar built in a house in London. It was on a hill, what problem could there be?
The cheapo Bulgarian builders, however, did not want to (or did not know how to) fit a floor drain that would emerge down the slope. Instead, they suggested a sump pump which would pump water up to the main drain. Which went through the top of the corner of the cellar. The sump was built, the pump installed, and the piping went behind the wall lining. I did ask what would happen if a leak coincided with a power cut while nobody was in the house but this was dismissed as unlikely.
The inevitable happened; the washing machine decided to leak and the cellar filled up with water while the pump was running quite happily. Because the cheap plumber had forgotten to connect the pump outlet to the overhead drain. The pump was sending the water into the space between the lining and the walls, from where it poured out of a ventilator.
I'm not suggesting Bulgarian builders are worse than any others; I'm suggesting that blindness to the possible effects of water leaks and their sheer destructiveness is remarkably common.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
