A majority of US companies will expand or relocate their data centers by 2010, according to a 2006 AFCOM/Data Center Institute study highlighted recently in Bnet. How can you tell if your company should be one of them?

David Rosenbaum, a former CIO editor who now is editor in chief at The Bloom Group, took a page from the Late Show with David Letterman to write this Top Ten list. Cue the band and read it aloud.

You know it may be time to move your data center when . . .

• 10. Procurement can't keep up with the demand for duct tape
• 9. There are several generations of field mice nesting in the wiring
• 8. The data center staff wears battery operated head lamps because every time they turn on the lights, the fuses blow
• 7. It was built when Pacman was the rage
• 6. Your CIO has started installing new servers in the executive washroom
• 5. Network uptime and downtime are running neck and neck
• 4. The Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units are blocks of ice with fans strategically placed behind them
• 3. Every time anyone asks your CIO about server virtualization, he vanishes
• 2. There's a sign above the door that reads, "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter."

And the number one way to tell it's time to move your data center is . . .

• 1. Your back-up generator is a team of hamsters running on a wheel.