I was listening to a data center analyst and they made the point increase rack density as one of the top things to do to increase efficiency in the data center.

This is a clear target to hit, but it is the wrong one. This situation reminds me of the 2004 Olympic target shooter who had one bullet to shoot to win the gold. He hit the bulls eye in lane three. He was in lane 2.

Emmons fired at the target in lane three while he was shooting in lane two. When no score appeared on the electronic scoring device for his lane, he turned to officials and gestured there was some sort of error.

"I shot," he appeared to say with a quizzical look as three officials in red blazers approached.

The officials went back and huddled briefly before announcing that Emmons had cross-fired — an extremely rare mistake in elite competition — and awarded him a score of zero.

It is easy to claim you increased the rack density, hitting the bulls eye. But in the same way that Emmons lost because he shot the wrong target, there is a different target to aim at that would be more important if you have had judges.

If you deployed 2 kW in a rack, but also stranded power in the process why should you claim the increased rack density as a win? The bigger picture to look at is did you use power without stranding power. There are many other factors that influence where a piece of equipment should be placed.

Increase rack density is a great way for the Blade vendors to sell more blades. But, the smartest data center operators don't make rack density a target to hit.

Do you?

That Olympian had instant feedback he missed the target. Here is the story after and how he met his wife after the mistake.

At Athens 2004, Matt Emmons missed his target but found love. He recalls:

"That was the last shooting event of the Games so a bunch of athletes and coaches went up to this beer garden between the ranges.

"We were taking it easy and relaxing, I'm there with some friends, and Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova [who had been commentating on the final as Emmons missed the target] came up to say how sorry she was about what happened, and how she admired how I'd handled the situation.

"At that time I just knew who she was, we'd never really spoken. But we hit it off really well, we started dating a year later and we were married in 2007. She's now Katerina Emmons."