GoKawiilJane Street's lone NYC datacenter nearly flooded after false fire alarm
A former Jane Street systems engineer recounts an incident in which a false smoke alarm triggered the fire-suppression protocol in the trading firm's only New York City machine room, located next to its trading floor. With sprinklers set to activate and cooling shut off, the team scrambled to physically disconnect every server's power before water could hit the equipment.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The account illustrates the risks that come with Jane Street's historical insistence on keeping servers physically adjacent to traders, a setup driven by concerns over intellectual property theft and a desire to retain a manual 'kill switch' for automated trading systems. It suggests that a culture of distrust toward automation and remote infrastructure, while reducing some risks, can create new single points of failure, such as having no backup datacenter.
- A false fire alarm nearly triggered sprinklers in Jane Street's sole NYC server room.
- Staff had to manually pull power cords from every machine to prevent water damage.
- The firm's practice of co-locating servers with its trading floor stemmed from security and manual-shutdown concerns, not just technical ones.
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Published there as: “A false smoke alarm almost drowned Jane Street's only NYC datacenter”
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