When my friends at HP told me about six data center videos they had posted on YouTube, I noticed a theme.

The HP series, “What Haunts Your Data Center?" certainly evokes Halloween, with its cast of data center monsters, including:
  • Dracula, The Data Center Energy Sucking Vampire
  • Frankenstein, The Multi-Vendor Environment Monster
  • Blob, The Virtualized Data Center…Gone Wrong
  • Skeletons, Legacy, Unknown Server and Storage Hardware
  • Ghosts, The Spooks Haunting Unsecured Data Centers
  • Werewolf, The Untrained Custodian
The videos are timely and hilarious but also sure to unsettle many data center operators who see their facilities as a plausible setting for one of the popular "Saw" series of movies. Picture it: Saw 27: IT v. Facilities!

My movie idea is not so far out of the mainstream because monsters and the monster theme recurs again and again as a way to communicating the problems of the industry. Take a look around your office: Isn't that a cartoon T Rex on the most recent copy ofZeroDowntime.

And even more eerily, I specifically remember Chris Crosby ofDigital Realty Trustshowing me promotional videos that included data center monsters. Very funny, very cool, and very true.

HP, Chris Crosby, and I all recognize that monster videos don't really keep data center operators awake at night, but that a good laugh might help with a good night's sleep. So, just in recognition of Halloween, here are some links to the HP monster videos. They'll be especially entertaining if you are alone in a lights out building and the phone rings...

The spooky cast of six monster videos can be found on YouTube atwww.youtube.com/HPMonsters

To download a PowerPoint, go tohttp://download.yousendit.com/TTdIRkJYcHZ5UkZjR0E9PQ

Facebook fan page: graphics of the six monsters can be downloaded athttp://www.facebook.com/pages/HP-Monsters/43822780794

HP’s destination site,www.hp.com/go/whathauntsyou, has monster images and sounds, allows visitors to vote for their favorite monster, and includes lots of good information on best approaches for ridding the data center of the monsters that haunt it.