Even so, the end result is impressive if we do say so ourselves. Fifteen vendors contributed to pimping out the new SOEST datacenter so that it fairly gleams with techno-wizardry. All of the vendors brought products that could help most datacenters upgrade their capabilities. Some vendors brought products that we can recommend without reservation to anyone building an enterprise datacenter. All told, our little server room benefited from nearly $400,000 worth of thoroughly modern datacenter gear. Read about the solutions and how we used them in the related articles. Or hear about it straight from Brian Chee in our series of short "Pimp my datacenter" videos.

The main goals driving our choice of gear were more efficient use of space through rack and cable management, power savings through more efficient cooling and a more efficient UPS, and higher security including better physical access control. We also aimed to help the SOEST IT staff avoid getting bitten by late-night glitches and driving in at the wee hours of the morning, by designing the new datacenter with remote management in mind.

Today HIG 319 is not only a showcase of 21st-century datacenter management, but the benefits we've seen have spurred the university to make similar improvements in other SOEST datacenters. We'll soon be putting our hard-won pimping skills and thick binder of notes to work on other projects.

Will we do some things differently the next time? Oh, you'd better believe it. Meanwhile, you can learn from our mistakes, and make plans for your own datacenter pimping by following these links.

Five lessons of a datacenter overhaul
A data center makeover and migration wants to go wrong in many ways. Do as we suggest, not as we did.

Pimp my datacenter: American Power Conversion
APC laid the foundation with InfraStruXure racks, cooling, power management, environmental monitoring, and the software that ties it all together

Pimp my datacenter: Avocent
Avocent's MergePoint and DSView out-of-band server management solutions let our fingers do the walking

Pimp my datacenter: Lantronix SecureLinx Spider
The tiny SecureLinx Spider brings advanced IP KVM functions to our nooks and crannies

Pimp my datacenter: OSI Security Devices
The OSI Omnilock card key system, programmable via Pocket PC, provides maximum security at minimal cost

Pimp my datacenter: Rackwise DCM
The Rackwise Data Center Manager provides an all-seeing, planner's-eye view of your datacenter

Pimp my datacenter: Servprise
Servprise's WebReboot Enterprise gives SOEST's admins a magic finger to push any server's power button

Pimp my datacenter: SilverBack Migration Solutions
The strong-backed experts at SilverBack had us racked, cabled, and reconfigured in record time

Pimp my datacenter: Universal Electric
Universal's Starline Track Busway has changed forever the way we bring power to our servers