Welcome back to Tech Service Today's IT Disaster of the Week series where we showcase the ugliest IT environment our technicians ran into this past week. This week's photo caption is: "April showers don't always bring May flowers." 

In fact, in this case, those showers may bring this network down.

Putting aside the amount of dirt covering the equipment in this week's IT Disaster, not to mention the completely chaotic environment in general, the thing that concerns me most about this image is the spray bottle on the floor beside the equipment...lying directly beneath a power supply.

For those of you who don't already know this, here is this week's lesson: Electricity and liquids - especially water - do not play well together.

I learned this lesson at an early age when I was trying to get to the cookies from the top shelf of our kitchen cabinet where my mother hid them. While attempting to climb up onto the kitchen counter, I placed one hand on the edge of a very wet stainless steel sink, and the other hand on the toaster plugged into the wall. In addition to learning about the interaction of water and electricity, the flash I saw at that moment -whether it was something real that shot out of the electrical outlet on the wall or merely a hallucination caused by high voltage passing through my brain - also taught me the meaning of true educational enlightenment.

While not everyone has had the hands-on training I've had in this area, I think my point is clear. Never expose your sensitive network electronics to water or any other kind of liquid.

At the risk of sounding like a Swiffer commercial, I also think this week's IT disaster photo is a shining example of what happens when you don't keep dust and dirt off your equipment. Sure, the equipment shown isn't susceptible to the kind of damage that dust/dirt would cause to a computer or server. But consider the impact on network performance when you plug a cable into a switch or router port that is chock full of dirt, dust, and grime.

Hopefully this week's IT Disaster will encourage all you IT professionals to do a little spring cleaning this month to your network racks, equipment, and cabling. But WITHOUT the aid of anything in a spray bottle!

Check back every Friday for TST's latest IT Disaster of the Week photo

which represents one of the thousands of customer sites our technicians visit every year as they install and service IT, networking, and telecom equipment & cabling for our clients.

Click here to see last week's IT Disaster photo.

Do you already have an IT disaster that needs to be cleaned up?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to install a network. But to ensure that your equipment, racks and cabling are installed properly in an organized, efficient fashion, it does require the talents of a skilled IT technician. If you need help installing or cleaning up your network, contact Tech Service Today to have a skilled, seasoned Technician dispatched to your site.

Need help installing, troubleshooting, testing, documenting, or replacing your network cabling?  Call Tech Service Today for on-site technical services anywhere in North America - often same-day when time is of the essence.

Just call (800) 973-2022 (option 1), or Email us at Service@TechServiceToday.com