In preparation for our eventual, and inevitable migration to either blade or rack mount servers, we decided to undertake a detailed inventory of the assets at our NoCal data center.

In order to correctly accomplish that, we knew we would need a labeler to tag the resources contained therein.

Luckily, I was able to get Epson to send me their LabelWorks LW-400 label maker.

We had used the Brother P-Touch labeler prior to now, but I didn’t like it because of the dearth of tapes for it, and the unwieldy user interface.

Not so with the LabelWorks LW-400.

Epson LabelWorks LW-400
The Epson LabelWorks LW-400 came to me in a retail box accompanied by an envelope containing extra tape cartridges for various uses and in several colors.

While one of the virtues of the LW-400 is its portability, it also sports an optional a/c power socket for those time you need more stable power. We did, and thanks to Radio Shack, we were able to purchase a power brick for that purpose.

We put the LW-400 to good use immediately.

We demarcated the servers according to our internal standards, and used color-coded labels to tag them. Once we were done with it we used it to tag switches, routers, and all other equipment.

Satisfied with reports of how well the LW-400 worked, I decided to use it in my one-man cataloging of the computing equipment – systems, cabling, and peripheral equipment at The Orbiting O’Odua. Score!

I then gave the unit to the staff at MedikLabs for their yearly equipment audit. Verdict: they loved it too.

Using the LW-400
The LW-400 sports an easy-to-use UI, and in a first, a well-detailed user manual!

At our data center, we standardized on a font from the available 14, and selected a frame – from over 70 – as well.

To use: type data, hit print, print, peel off backing, and adhere to desired piece of equipment.

The really cool thing about the LW-400 is the built-in ability to auto fit text onto a desired size of paper by printing on multiple lines, up to four lines of text per label. Quite cool.

Conclusion
This product is a very good value.

It is supposed to do one thing: make labels.

It does that very well. It does so effortlessly, and economically.

It is also well priced, and over the course of our use, proved to be very reliable.

Consequently, it has been deemed worthy of the SmallBizWindows Business Ready Product Award.

Totally useful!

© 2005-2012 John Obeto II for Blackground Media Unlimited