Just as the racks themselves must be made of the finest materials available and make use of the latest manufacturing technology so must the monitors that accompany them. In order to see what your server is doing at any particular moment, you have to hook it to a TV monitor to observe it in action. In order for the technician to fly that smart bomb into that enemy target, he has to see the images being transmitted from the camera in the eye of that missile.

From those images, he can guide the bomb to its target with unerring accuracy. It's the monitors that provide that ability. Monitors must be manufactured to operate under the most severe of weather and terrain conditions, temperatures so low that air freezes as it leaves your nose, to dry, dust filled desert terrains. They must be able to travel and not get damaged in the process. Some are designed to be used on mobile vehicles, plotting courses, and operating sophisticated equipment while traveling unpaved roads at high speed.

There are industrial flat panel monitors designed to operate in harsh environments and CRT displays that are put through rigorous vibration tests before they are put into the field. And their sunlight-readable, high-contrast transflexive monitors designed especially to be readable in extreme sunlight. If you're going to be out in the field in Iraq, operating a group of high-tech tanks and other equipment, you'll want monitors that are rugged and reliable and can be easily read in the burning desert sunlight. There are monitors housed in stainless steel designed to protect against corrosion, windblown dust, rain, splashing water, hose directed water and external icing found in harsh artic environments.

Needless to say, that's a bit more than you'd want for your family room set, but if you're out there in those environments you'll want the best monitor available to make your system functional and complete.