It looks like a variant of what we call "The Big Red Button" [emergency power shutoff, which sometimes also activates the Halon fire suppression system] that exists in every datacenter, frequently inside of the datacenter and right next to the main entrance/exit, because you very well might be getting your ass out of there in a hurry, depending upon what's going on.
In the datacenters where the planners had common sense, there are plastic covers called "Molly guards" (yes, I linked to the etymology of this term, it's worth peeking at) you have to flip up, or some other sort of safeguard to keep them from accidentally getting hit, as the cost of bringing up several hundred servers, doing restores when necessary, and replacing Halon if that system kicks off is somewhere at a level beyond considerable and somewhere below the national debt.
In the other scenario, there are really funny stories you can read online (go to the comments section for the real laughers) about misadventures that occurred when the button got pushed when it shouldn't have.
Comment stories are great too!