Today's photo caption: To paraphrase Neil Young, "A LAN needs a maid" 

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 week. 

Just as Neil Young sang about why "A Man Needs A Maid", the tune of this blog addresses a similar situation wherein many LANs (Local Area Networks) also require some periodic cleaning.

As most IT professionals know, it's important to at least try to keep dust out of sensitive equipment - especially computers and servers. Those devices have internal fans running constantly to keep them from overheating. In order for them to blow the hot air out (as I do each week via this blog), they need to pull cool air in. But when the surrounding environment is dusty/dirty, those particulates either get pulled inside the equipment (where they can build up), or they clog the vent holes where air is supposed to enter. Either way, the result is your equipment overheating.

Even if your equipment is smart enough to sense extreme temperatures and turn itself off before serious internal damage is done, can you afford to have your network computers shutting themselves off throughout the work day? Of course not.

So what's an IT professional to do? Well, a little light housekeeping wouldn't hurt. Seriously! A little hand-vac works well to clean out the vent holes on computers. And making sure the housekeeping staff keeps floors clean will reduce particulates in the air too.

It's also a good idea to keep your CPUs and all network equipment off the floor. The higher they are, the further they are from the dust that gets kicked up from the floors. Plus, they won't be as susceptible to static discharge (if you have carpeting) or moisture if something gets spilled on the floor.

As this week's IT disaster photo shows, it's not uncommon to run into equipment failures due to excessive dust and moisture.

So here's our tip for determining whether or not you have an environment that's hostile to your IT equipment: If your equipment has mold spots growing on the surface, or it has so much dust stuck in the vent holes that it looks like an IT Chia Pet, then it's time to relocate your equipment to a safer, drier environment.

Remember, It's never too late to do the right thing, or to start doing things the right way.