A question was asked on LinkedIn Answers regarding small server room cooling. The “server closet” in question is sub 300 sq ft and has issues with external temperatures dropping below the temperature threshold for current in-place wall unit cooling systems to handle.

The requester stipulated “reasonable cost” solutions.

Again, please remember, this is for a “server closet” solution.

What’s your budget look like? And what’s the heat load of the equipment in the room? Since you are using a wall unit, I am assuming your heat load is quite low. (Although there are some quite high-capacity wall units out there!)

A user of LinkedIn recently asked a question regarding broadening/expanding his international market. Currently the site supports Italian (the native tongue for the business location) and the primary sales channel is online. Statistics provided were 150 visitors per day, with 7 to 10 orders. The user also wanted to know where his lost visitors are going and if the product was too niche — and how to overcome these issues.

Here’s my answer:

Is the 7 or 10 orders a daily or a total order count? I’m going to assume it’s a daily purchase count…

This is very similar to a previous posting here: Measuring Metrics, coulda shoulda woulda….

Recently someone asked [stated] “IT is strong in process thinking. But it seems there’s often no process in place to manage and control a KPI/Reporting?”

Here’s my response:

Sadly, I agree with your statement/question.

A KPI/Report is just another tool. Like any other tool, it is necessary to frequently revisit its relevance and usefulness to the organization. If KPIs and/or reports are deemed out of date, an effort should be made to update the KPI/report to once again make it useful or the KPI/report should be discarded.

Someone asked if they should build a data center or co-locate their equipment somewhere and what the risks and decision making criteria are.

My answer:

I’ve done both, multiple times…

Frankly, the only criteria advice I can give you is this: If it isn’t core to your business, or you don’t have some financial, security, or legal requirement to build, then don’t build it.

Data center providers typically “do it better”, since it’s core to -their- business model. Many of them are also SAS-70 Type II certified, something which may or may not be of interest to you if you’re worried about risk mitigation.

Here’s my response to a recruiter asking how to deliver value and differentiate himself when delivering candidates to his clients:

Find out if the hiring manager is willing, sit down with the recruiter (either over the phone, or in person — not over lunch, food is too distracting!)

Go over the req line by line BEFORE the meeting. If the recruiter doesn’t understand the requirement, get clarification from the hiring manager.

As a recruiter, to understand why each requirement exists and to what degree that capability is truly required. Are “nice to haves” actually a hidden “one of the following is required”? Does the hiring manager place more weight on one specific trait/skill over another (for example: candidate technical skill vs. management history.)