Low-impact installation techniques

We try to 'work smart' rather than just work hard. We don't like driving all over the country and our staff prefer to be at home because it's nicer there than in a noisy server room at a client's site. If we have to travel we will do it but it's not our first choice.

Our inherent dislike for unnecessary work has led us to adopt low-impact installation techniques based on our need to be able, in any case, to offer remote support.

We expect that we aren't the first to realise that widespread availability of good internet connections makes this easier to do. Even so, it doesn't yet seem commonplace.

We choose hardware with remote management capability; in the jargon ILOM (Integrated Lights-Out Management).

We ensure that a fully-commissioned system includes the ability for any server to be fully re-installed and reconfigured from a 'bare metal' state without anyone needing to be present to do it.

When we build a new system, it's pre-configured by us at our customer build centre before being shipped to the final location. We use the same techniques for that process too, so the technicians supervising the build aren't actually physically present at the build centre. There isn't usually room for them there even if they wanted to be.

When equipment is delivered to site it's true that someone does have to accept it from the couriers, upack it, physically install it attaching power and network cables, then turn it on for the first time. This is known as 'racking and stacking'. In practice it is often our staff who do that but in principle it's not essential and customer/client staff could do it with less training than needed to put a piece of flat-pack furniture together. Customer rack and stack is more common after the initial installation, either for upgrades or in the rare event of server hardware failure and subsequent replacement being necessary.

Once the equipment is installed, all further support and commissioning is usually performed by our staff working remotely, they don't need or want to be on site.

We've had a memorable occasion where a staff member arrived on site, racked and stacked the equipment in the morning and had lunch with our client contact. Preparing to leave he was asked 'when are you going to commission the equipment?'. The answer was 'Our staff did that that while you and I were having lunch'. The system was handed over, working, that afternoon.