To Green the Data Center with lasting sustainable value requires change.  Measuring PUE adds a metric.  Meeting a LEED certification creates a requirement.  Small changes are made to accommodate these needs.  But, many times there is not a fundamental change.

Why change?  Because, if you don't change you do the same things you have done in the past.  Many learn to change labels of what they do, picking up new acronyms and buzz words, but don't fundamentally change.

So, if you are going to change you can take the approach of pick your number, define a timeline, make a plan, get a budget, execute, promote how you were successful, but ultimately fail in making a lasting change that feels good.

Why?  Because you weren't open to ask the tough questions.  You went for the easy answers.  A lower PUE and a LEED certification.

Twitter's Kevin Weil put it well.

If you want to change, think about how to ask the right questions.

I think most people are changing to conform to accepted changes.  It's safe.  Which brings up an issue of whether conforming to norms is consider change?

If you want to change to be more competitive you most likely want to innovate.

Are you changing to innovate or changing to conform?

US based companies build some of the biggest data center portfolios in the world.  The rate of expansion in markets outside the US will grow faster than the US data center market.  Digital Realty Trust announced their Asia expansion.

Jim Smith, chief technology officer (CTO) of the U.S.-based Digital Realty Trust, said the company had been thinking of entering the region earlier in 2008, but the recession in the latter half of that year proved to be a "distraction". Since then, many of its existing customers have been after the datacenter operator to branch out into this part of the world, he noted.

The CTO, who was in town for a conference, told ZDNet Asia during an interview Thursday that as Asia-Pacific has not experienced the "datacenter boom-and-bust" cycle that afflicted the U.S. during the dotcom years at the turn of the century, there are no legacy IT systems to contend with.

Furthermore, there is pent-up demand for more datacenter space and capabilities as companies in this region got out of the 2009 recession pretty quickly and are growing fast, he said. Increasing interest in cloud computing and virtualization technologies by businesses here are the other demand drivers mentioned by the executive.

To address the demand, Smith named four countries, namely Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and India, which the company will be looking to work out of. Elaborating, he noted that Digital Realty Trust focuses on financial centers globally and has a presence in cities such as London and Paris. The Asian markets that the company is targeting are a natural extension of its business strategy, he said.

HP announced their 6 Global Service Hubs.  IBM has their international strategy.

Yahoo announced its Switzerland data center.  Many have gone to Dublin.

It will be interesting to see what plays out in Asia.  One huge advantage HP and IBM have vs. a Digital Realty Trust is their hiring of thousands employees in the country.

Just like any smart data center site selection process looks at the tax incentives.  The tax incentives for international are important.  HP has the tax incentives for its Malaysia global cent. 

CIO.com: Although these six hubs are not all new to HP, you will be staffing up in these locations. How many and what types of professionals are you hiring in each country?

Rasmussen: We did have a presence in these hubs already, but not at the scale we currently have or with the government approvals and tax benefits. We are aggressively hiring and building them out today. We don't disclose [employment] numbers at the location level or the "best shore" level.

Those who only want data center space like Digital Realty Trust are at a disadvantage to companies like HP, Google, and IBM that can negotiate with their local employee numbers which creates the support for the data center build out.

A more sustainable/green data center strategy requires understanding the environment., not just the environmental issues in an Asia country which includes the social, economic, and political issues.

Growth outside the US is huge.  Many of my best friends are people I worked with on developing products for Asia markets and purchasing products/services from these markets as well. 

Many people fall in love with a culture and want to immerse themselves in it and try to be a local, adopting local customs and business methods.  One good friend in
Japan said you are good at knowing the Japanese, but your advantage is you don't care about doing things the Japanese way, you just want to do the right thing.  They can't control you by telling you, "Sorry Ohara-san we just don't do things that way here."  which gets most Westerners to back off.

One of the funniest things to watch was big 6ft 5in Americans talk Japanese like a woman as he takes Japanese lessons at work from a woman who doesn't do business in Japan.  if you never knew there are gender differences in speaking Japanese.

Gender differences in spoken Japanese

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Japanese language is unusual among major languages in the high degree to which the speech of women collectively differs from that of men. Differences in the ways that girls and boys use language have been detected in children as young as three years old (Tannen).

Such differences are sometimes called "gendered language." In Japanese, speech patterns peculiar to women are sometimes referred to as onna kotoba (女言葉, "women's words") orjoseigo (女性語, "women's language"). The use of "gender" here refers to gender roles, not grammatical gender. A man using feminine speech might be considered effeminate, but his utterances would not be considered grammatically incorrect. In general, the words and speech patterns considered masculine are also seen as rough, vulgar, or abrupt, while the feminine words and patterns make a sentence more polite, more deferential, or "softer" (countering abruptness). Some linguists consider the rough/soft continuum more accurate than the male/female continuum – for example, Eleanor Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Spoken Language refers to the styles as blunt/gentle, rather than male/female.^[1]

There are no gender differences in written Japanese (except in quoted speech), and almost no differences in polite speech (teineigo), except for occasional use of wa (and except for the fact that women may be more likely to use polite speech in the first place).

I get around this whole issue when I was in Japan by never speaking Japanese.  I learned on my first trip to Japan in 1987, speaking Japanese doesn't work for me as the people expect my Japanese to be perfect because I look so Japanese.

I should think of these old Asia trip stories more, they are funny.

I have been in heavy research mode working 7 days a week for the last month, and for the next few days I am going to attempt to unplug.  To restrict my ability to blog I am taking my daughter to her first Texas Longhorn Football game.

I am a UC Berkeley alumni, but have more fun cheering for friends and families alma mater. One of our best family friends are Oregon Ducks who are #1.

There are distractions in Austin, TX.  Smooth-Stone is HQ in Austin.  Dell is Round Rock.  And, the University of Texas has a new data center.

On the other hand, my cousin I am visiting in Texas was an-American swimmer for UT, so we will be busy with his swimming friends.  We could talk about water, but I don't expect many data center discussions.

I'll be back researching data centers on Monday, and I am sure I'll have a bunch more to discuss.

Checking my own metric on whether the break is good my blood pressure dropped back to 117 over 78 a day after I made the mental break.