For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Data Center Incident Reporting Network — well, today’s your lucky day because we’re going to talk about it.

DCIRN was formed in 2017 and reincorporated in 2020 as a nonprofit organization. The purpose of the organization is to serve as a teaching aid for those who are currently in the industry to learn from each other as well as for the next-generation of data center professionals to learn from the collective experiences of those who came before them. As Winston Churchill once said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That’s why DCIRN has established a process to ensure all incidents are made anonymous before publication. Once completed, submissions are password-protected and encrypted. They remain with the secretariat and are made anonymous before even being sent to the technical advisory committee for review and comment.

Sure, it sounds scary to admit something went wrong at your facility. But, isn’t it scarier not to? I mean, think of all the downtime that could be avoided if we only knew what caused it in the first place. Or better yet, think about it this way …

Health care records are some of the most sensitive data you can come across. Doctors can be sued and possibly even lose their licenses for violating privacy laws. But, even they publish information in medical journals to promote knowledge sharing — it’s possible to relate an incident without leaking all of the sensitive data. For example, doctors need not release patient names, birthdates, addresses, lifestyle choices, etc., to talk about the lessons learned during an emergency surgery. Likewise, data center/colo operators need not release company information, floor plans, access codes, etc., to report on downtime resulting from power outages, overheating, human errors, or anything else for that matter.

The data center and health care industries already share some similarities, which is why they are grouped together as mission critical facilities. So, what I’m basically saying here is, follow the leader.

Once it’s fully populated, facility managers will be able to use the DCIRN reporting platform to compare their operation against similar data centers. The analytics will show the most common incidents by levels of severity and provide a clear understanding of contributing factors (and how to avoid or remedy them).

If this is the first time you’re hearing of DCIRN, I urge you to learn more about their mission. And, for those of you who are unsure — remember what Churchill said, and ask yourself what’s scarier: hiding from your competitors or learning from them.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Data Center Incident Reporting Network — well, today’s your lucky day because we’re going to talk about it.

DCIRN was formed in 2017 and reincorporated in 2020 as a nonprofit organization. The purpose of the organization is to serve as a teaching aid for those who are currently in the industry to learn from each other as well as for the next-generation of data center professionals to learn from the collective experiences of those who came before them. As Winston Churchill once said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That’s why DCIRN has established a process to ensure all incidents are made anonymous before publication. Once completed, submissions are password-protected and encrypted. They remain with the secretariat and are made anonymous before even being sent to the technical advisory committee for review and comment.

Sure, it sounds scary to admit something went wrong at your facility. But, isn’t it scarier not to? I mean, think of all the downtime that could be avoided if we only knew what caused it in the first place. Or better yet, think about it this way …

Health care records are some of the most sensitive data you can come across. Doctors can be sued and possibly even lose their licenses for violating privacy laws. But, even they publish information in medical journals to promote knowledge sharing — it’s possible to relate an incident without leaking all of the sensitive data. For example, doctors need not release patient names, birthdates, addresses, lifestyle choices, etc., to talk about the lessons learned during an emergency surgery. Likewise, data center/colo operators need not release company information, floor plans, access codes, etc., to report on downtime resulting from power outages, overheating, human errors, or anything else for that matter.

The data center and health care industries already share some similarities, which is why they are grouped together as mission critical facilities. So, what I’m basically saying here is, follow the leader.

Once it’s fully populated, facility managers will be able to use the DCIRN reporting platform to compare their operation against similar data centers. The analytics will show the most common incidents by levels of severity and provide a clear understanding of contributing factors (and how to avoid or remedy them).

If this is the first time you’re hearing of DCIRN, I urge you to learn more about their mission. And, for those of you who are unsure — remember what Churchill said, and ask yourself what’s scarier: hiding from your competitors or learning from them.