Graduated with a bachelors in information systems about 2 years ago, all my experience is mostly in helpdesk and infrastructure management right now in my position. I want to be more hands on with my work and data centers feel like the perfect place to transition. I am open to relocation and have not had luck with the big AWS and Google data centers was wondering what advice or insight people in the sub can offer. Thank you

I was on a call with a friend who was telling me that their backup generator had been hacked through an IoT controller (I assumed an ATS) relinquishing control, and the company got ransomed and was told they had an hour to produce the ransom (BTC) or they would disable the ATS and then go after a bunch of their MEP controls including chillers. Essentially forcing an event that would require going to generator that they couldn't use. The kicker was, it was a corporate facility and they shut off the chillers that went to the refrigerators in the cafeteria and they lost a shit ton of food to boot.

Aside from overlooking their cyber security practices (if they had any), what's your crazy story/experience, especially a preventable one?

For those who joined AWS DCO either tech or manager as an external hire and were headed for a night line, I’m trying to get a realistic sense of the timeline before you actually landed on nights.

If you’ve been through it, I’d appreciate specifics:

• How many weeks on days (orientation + training) before you moved to your permanent night shift?

• How much did the timeline depend on who was available to train you?

Also the recruiter has not been very helpful at all. I had to constantly keep asking what the update of my application was. It seems like as soon as I filled out the form for my feedback on the interview she presented me with the news that they aren’t interested. SMH

We are planning our first two liquid-cooled GPU racks in an existing air-cooled data hall. The current configurations are expected to run around 65–70KW per rack, with 80 kW as the upper planning case. Most of the surrounding racks are still in the 10–15KW range.

Based on the preliminary server configurations, roughly three quarters of the rack heat should be captured by the technology cooling loop, although we are still waiting for the final figures from the server vendor. That would leave around 16–20KW per rack for the room cooling system under normal conditions.

The facility chilled-water loop runs through an adjacent mechanical corridor, but there is currently no water distribution inside the white space. One option is to use a liquid-to-air HDU for the first phase and avoid extending facility water into the room. The problem is that the HDU would reject the captured heat back into the data hall, so the existing air system would still have to handle nearly the full rack load.

The other option is to extend facility water now and install a liquid-to-liquid CDU. That would remove most of the rack heat from the room and provide a better path for expansion, but it adds piping, isolation, commissioning and another equipment-side loop that our operations team has not maintained before.

I came across a Schneider Electric article that describes HDUs as a transitional option where facility water is unavailable, and CDUs as the more direct connection when water infrastructure already exists nearby. That distinction makes sense, but I am not sure when the lower-disruption bridge becomes a false economy.

For a two-rack first phase, use an HDU and accept the additional room load, or install the facility-water connection now?

Fuck this industry honestly. I’m tired of applying hundred times getting interviews and interviewers wasting my fucking time. Why do I have to do 3 fucking interviews for just putting cable into a server. Fucking scumbags

Hey everyone,

I just finished my full interview loop panel this week for an L4 Network Installation Technician position at AWS. My panels were spread across two days, and I wanted to share my experience and get some perspective because I’m feeling pretty down about how the final technical round went.

Day 1: Two Interviews

Interview 1 (2 people, 1 shadowing): Felt really good about this one. It was entirely 4–5 Leadership Principle (LP) behavioral questions.

Interview 2 (one person): This one was way more intense. Because the first interview ran long, I had a lapse in judgment and didn't use my best technical examples for the LPs here. The 2–3 LP questions they asked were highly complex. I wasn’t expecting technical questions in this round, but they threw in 3 base-level conceptual "what are these" questions, plus an Excel function I had never even heard of.

Day 2: Two Interviews

Interview 3 (2 people, 1 shadow): I think I did well here. There were 4–6 base-level technical questions and 1–3 LP questions. Because of how Day 1 went, I told them upfront I wanted to answer the LPs using technical examples. The interviewer actually stopped and reassured me that technical examples weren't strictly required for the behaviorals, which helped lower my stress.

Interview 4 (The Technical Interview): This is where I feel I completely dropped the ball. I studied for a solid month—digging through forums, reviewing the job description, and prepping heavily. Sadly, none of what I studied was on the test.
Instead of hardware, transceiver types, cable types, and physical layer troubleshooting, they asked about:
Reinstalling ends on RJ45 and fiber.
Specific IP address ranges, protocol deep-dives, and Secure Shell (SSH).
It completely threw me for a loop. It was basic IT Fundamentals stuff, but because I focused so heavily on physical infrastructure, I blanked on the protocol specifics. The only saving grace is that I was able to clearly showcase my troubleshooting logic and train of thought, even when I wasn't 100% sure if the final answer was right.

I'm feeling pretty unsure on what to think because I know I should have reviewed those concepts, but I just didn't foresee the interview going that route.
Trying to stay positive, readjust, and wait for the recruiter's call. Wish me luck and send some prayers up and good vibes!

The Single-Home Illusion: The calculation that data centers can power "88 million homes" is mathematically correct because one individual home draws very little power (~10,500 kWh per year).

The Aggregate Reality: There are over 130 million homes in the U.S. When you combine them all, they form a massive block of over 1,500 TWh.

As shown above, data centers do not swallow 100% of the aggregate household grid by 2030—they swallow 27.3% of it.

However, if the current AI infrastructure trajectory continues past 2030, the two blocks are projected to reach a 100% baseline parity by 2035.

Adding 2035.

Does anyone who works or worked at Vertiv know how much this role pays? I know google searches can be really off, so I didn’t want to trust it.

I've seen plenty of discussion around data centres themselves—the power requirements, land, AI demand, hyperscalers, etc.—but not much about the secondary commercial real estate opportunities that develop around them.

Let's use a hypothetical example:

Suppose a large hyperscale data centre is built in Australia, around 100 km outside a major city. Within the first year or two, what supporting infrastructure and peripheral industries would typically emerge around it?

I'm not referring to the core infrastructure (the data centre building, substations, fibre, cooling systems, etc.). I'm more interested in the adjacent commercial real estate and industrial ecosystem that tends to develop.

For comparison, think about a major port. The port itself is only one piece of the puzzle. Over time you also see:

• Off-port container storage and logistics yards
• Truck parking and driver rest facilities
• Warehouses and cross-docking facilities
• Equipment maintenance and repair businesses
• Fuel stations and transport services
• Accommodation, food and other services for workers

So, using the US (particularly places like Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Dallas or other major data centre hubs) as a guide, what are the equivalent "halo effect" developments around large data centres?

Some ideas I've thought of:

• Electrical equipment suppliers and maintenance depots
• Generator servicing and fuel logistics
• Security companies and monitoring centres
• Construction contractors with ongoing fit-out and expansion work
• Spare parts and critical equipment warehouses
• Fibre/network maintenance facilities

But what else typically appears within the first few years?

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has observed this in established US data centre markets. Are there commercial real estate sectors that tend to benefit but don't receive much attention? Do you see demand for specific industrial property types (small warehouses, laydown yards, equipment storage, worker accommodation, logistics hubs, etc.) that investors often overlook?

Keen to hear thoughts from people with experience in markets where data centre clusters have matured.

Which role is better for long term career growth and troubleshooting/skill growth? I have both jobs offered and need to accept one tomorrow. Would really appreciate any input on people that have worked in both fields.

Trying to understand how data center teams actually split the work. Curious how it looks where you are:

1. How are responsibilities divided across Operations, NOC, Network, Storage, Compute, Facilities, and Security?
2. What tools do you rely on most for monitoring, provisioning, and repaving servers: vendor consoles, commercial platforms, or internal automation?
3. Who usually owns the servers themselves, including firmware, BMCs, and the out-of-band network?
4. If you operate a mixed environment across Dell, HPE, Supermicro, and other vendors, how do you manage and standardize across them?

Thanks!

I got hired at a data center a couple of months ago and I'm getting into the swing of things. One thing that's driving me nuts is the labels we use to label our cables. They're documented well as each end gets a label when installed and we have a numbered database for each cable run. That's not what's at issue. This is my first time working as a data center tech, so I've not had any outside experience with how things are done and want to see how it's done at different places.

We currently use a Panduit TDP43ME to create our labels thru a very convoluted process. (That's another story though.) The labels are 3.5 x 1 inch stickers that have 1 inch of white space at the top which the printer prints the info on. The techs places the label face down, places the cable below the white space, folds the label over the cable and sticky side to sticky side, then fold the rest over on the printed side to protect what's written on the sticker. All said and done it's about a 1" sticker that's a huge pain when removing and installing each cable. When you're doing a couple hundred cables for a server project, they take up a lot of space and are just cumbersome to deal with when there's a lot of them.

The picture I attached seems like a decent improvement, but without outside experience, I don't know any pros or cons. How do you guys label your cables?

EDIT: Dang! Seems like what we're doing is the way to go. I'll learn to work with it instead of against it. Thanks for the replies y'all! I am going to look in to this carrot thing!

Hey everyone,
I’m looking to break into a data center role in the Atlanta area. I have a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with experience in systems engineering, test engineering, electrical troubleshooting, and working in defense. I’m especially interested in critical facilities or data center technician positions.

I’ve been applying for a few months now with limited traction, and I’m trying to figure out what’s actually going to move the needle:

**•** For entry-level DC tech / facilities roles, does clearance eligibility or certs like mine actually get noticed, or is hands-on experience (even non-IT) weighted way more?  
**•** Anyone here get in without direct data center experience — and if so, what background did you come from?  
**•** Are staffing agencies (Aerotek, TEKsystems, etc.) actually a legit way into these sites, or better to go direct?

Appreciate any insight — even “here’s what didn’t work for me” is genuinely useful at this point.

Hey all, long-time lurker looking for a reality check from people who actually work in this space.

Quick background on me: mechanical engineer, 8 years in power generation and desalination here in Saudi Arabia. I've operated and planned maintenance for Ras Al-Khair (2,700 MW hybrid power + desal) and commissioned Jubail 3A (world's largest RO plant), so I've spent my career around critical power, cooling, controls and reliability testing, just not under the "data center" label.

I can see where the trends are going. AI is scaling fast, and being based in Saudi the data center buildout here is impossible to miss, government and big tech are pouring in. So I want to make the transition while the field is still opening up rather than trying to catch up later.

I've started my journey with the Schneider DCCA. One thing though, the exam feels very different from the course material itself. The courses are digestible but the exam seems like a different beast.

So two questions for the group:

1. Given my background, am I pointed in the right direction? Or is there something else I should be doing/stacking alongside this (Uptime ATS, CDCP, BICSI, etc.)?

2. Anyone here taken the DCCA exam who can share how to actually prepare for it vs just going through the courses? What caught you off guard?

Appreciate any honest input, good or bad.

Courses I'm looking at:

- Schneider Electric University (DCCA)

- datacentercollege.com

Just three years ago, wide majorities in both parties backed tax breaks for data centers. Now they don’t. Democrats got to that position first, but most of the political movement this year has come from Republicans, particularly in the western part of the state, which has few such facilities.

I just made a GitHub repository with a INDEPTH interview study guide for AWS DCO L3-L4 roles. I my self currently work as a DCO L3 at AWS so it’s coming from me and what I did to prepare for my interview. Please let me know it is !

( note the only reason it has my GitHub it cause I couldn’t post the entire study guide on a post so I had to post it somewhere else )

What piece of software is able to do GPU as a service? How a client can ask for n GPU for x hours ?

(I plan to buy refurbished dell with a100 GPU)...

Systems Engineer, Controls Fleet, Data Center Capacity Delivery

Job ID: 3138988

How did the process go and which location?

Hello everyone! Sorry for the possible mistaked, English is not my first language.

I got a Controls Commisioning Engineer job offer but I don't know how is my life going to be if I say yes. Currently I am a medtech FSE, so the overtime and pressure I have is high. My main incentives for a change are the wage improvement (from 60k € to 75k €) and the possibility to have a more planned life (my current job is very reactive).

In my area are building a ton of datacenters, so Hanley told be that besides the trainings I wouldn't have much travelling.

My main questions are:

- How is the time table normally? And how is it on the final stage of the projects?

- Is the datacenters a rough or a nice enviroment to work?

- Is it a technically inspiring and challenging job or just follow a procedure like a monkey?

- Is it normal to work on weekends and nights or everything is done during the day?

- What happens with the commisioning once the datacenters are up and running? There is more work to do or I would be pushed to travel / get fired?

Any information or personal experience would be very appreciated.

Thank you!

I have an interview with 2 Managers and 1 Lead. Has anyone recently went through an interview process for the same or similar position? All tips are appreciated!!! How detailed are the technical questions and how should I form my responses? I know the STAR method but what expected LP questions can you share? Lastly, what are some eye popping questions I can give them at the end of the interview?

With so many AI data centers being announced, I keep wondering whether all the heat they produce could become an environmental problem of its own. The IEA expects global data center electricity demand to more than double by 2030, with AI-optimized facilities accounting for much of that growth. Nearly all of the electricity consumed by the IT equipment eventually becomes heat.

If data centers reject that heat while nearby buildings continue burning gas or using electricity for hot water and industrial processes, it seems like a missed opportunity.

Some facilities are already finding practical uses for it. Queen Mary University of London worked with Schneider Electric, APT and other engineering partners to recover heat from its data center, raise the water temperature to 65–75°C and feed it into the university’s campus heating and hot-water system. EcoDataCenter in Sweden uses surplus heat for wood-pellet production.

But actual reuse still appears to be limited. In the EUDCA 2026 survey, 39% of the surveyed colocation and hyperscale operators said they actively measure Energy Reuse Factor, with another 18% measuring it partially. The same report says only a very small share of the heat produced by European data centers is currently reused, with its modelled sector footprint putting ERF at around 0.01.

The main barriers appear to be distance from heat-distribution networks, lack of economic benefit or incentives, and a mismatch between the available heat and local demand. Liquid cooling can improve the quality of the recoverable heat by providing a higher coolant return temperature, but it still does not create a nearby user for it.

One option would be to locate an AI data center near facilities with steady hot-water demand, such as hospitals, hotels, university residences or central laundries. Heat from the liquid-cooling loop could preheat water, with a heat pump providing the remaining temperature lift and thermal storage balancing continuous server heat against variable demand.

Beyond district heating and campus hot water, what other applications could absorb this amount of continuous heat? Could they reduce enough energy use and emissions elsewhere to make a meaningful difference, or will most of the heat from new AI data centers still have to be rejected?

Most interesting with Australia having the land and power in the central Australian area could this be the new data centre playground?