Over at the Green Data Center Blog, Dave Ohara draws attention to a white paper by Lee Technologies that claims to point out the ten worst mistakes made in the way data centers are run. Now the thing is, I have little taste in registering myself to download a white paper, but it is a good thing Green Data Center Blog gives us a summary.

The order Lee Technologies uses is:

1: Not including your operations team in facility design2: Relying too much on data center design

3: Failure to correctly address the staffing requirement

4: Failure to train and develop your talent

5: Failing to consistently drill and test skills

6: Failure to overlay your operations program with documented processes and procedures

7: Failure to implement appropriate processes and procedures

8: Failure to develop and implement Quality Systems

9: Failure to use software management tools

10: Thinking you can build a best in breed program as quickly as a data center

You can debate this, of course, and as always lists like this should not be taken as the infallible word of everything beyond. However, as Ohara points out, you can use it as a base and determine your own list of failures.

To usher in the weekend with a positive (though a tad cliche'd) note: mistakes are a great way to learn.