Today's photo caption: A technology turkey...with stuffing!  

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. 

The holidays are just around the corner, but this is the last kind of stuffing we want to see. We are, however, thankful for being given the chance to address this situation before it turned into a costly disaster like a network outage.

While it is common for retail stores and restaurants to house some or all of their IT equipment directly beneath the check-out counter (as is the case here), there are two reasons why this network became our IT disaster this week.

This first reason is pretty obvious and has to do with the stuffing in this turkey. Regardless of how large or small your network is, it's critical to have a space dedicated just for your IT equipment. When boxes (or anything) get stacked on or around your equipment, you create a hazardous environment like this. Not only will those boxes reduce airflow to the equipment (increasing the chances of devices overheating and failing), but the storing and retrieving those boxes often result in collisions with the IT equipment - a common cause of accidental disconnects.

The second reason we chose this as our IT disaster this week is the cabinet door. While you want to be able to protect your IT equipment, it becomes a real problem when a sliding door (or hinged one) impacts your cabling every time you close it. Such impacts can kink your cables, loosen them from the equipment ports in which they are plugged, or cause them to completely disconnect. When every minute of down-time can be measured in lost sales dollars, this is an unacceptable practice.

If any of your networks look like this stuffed turkey, don't let it ruffle your feathers. TST can send a technician to your site to cleanup disasters like this, and give you lots to be thankful for this holiday season.

Remember: It’s never too late to do the right thing, or to do things the right way.