Lee Tech on Tap Oct 6, 2011 Chicago

Steve Manos has started a great data center social event and it has grown.  Luckily I will be in Chicago for DataCenterDynamics and I'll be at the Oct 6, event.

The Chicago area has a great data center community and I am looking forward to reconnect with many people and make new contacts.

If you can make it you can register here.

Lee Tech on Tap October Event

Please join Lee Technologies and Schneider Electric for our first joint Lee Tech on Tap event Thursday, October 6th 2011 at Buddy Guy's Legends Blues Bar in Chicago.  Please RSVP as soon as possible as the venue has limited capacity.

• When:  Thursday, October 6th, 2011 from 6:30pm-10:30pm
• Where: Buddy Guy's Legends Blues Bar
• Who:  Data Center Professionals
• Why:  To network, trade war stories, and to meet/reconnect with industry peers.

We look forward to seeing you there!  If you have any questions, please contact Steve Manos (smanos@leetechnologies.com)

Khosla says Environmentalist are barrier for Green Tech

News.com reports on a keynote by Vino Khosla at AlwaysOn Green conference.  And, one of the statements is environmentalists are a barrier.

FILED UNDER:

• GREEN TECH

Khosla: Environmentalists, get out of way

By: Martin LaMonica SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 11:02 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO--Vinod Khosla is famous for investing lots of money in green technologies. But when it comes to his role models, it's all Steve Jobs, not Al Gore.

Khosla was interviewed today at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference here, where he espoused the idea of making big bets on potentially game-changing companies.

The controversial statement is environmentalists are clueless.

Even though Khosla got into green-tech investing out of environmental concerns, he said environmentalists have been a barrier to green tech because they assume that people need to pay more for cleaner alternatives to the status quo. They understand what the problems are, but when it comes to coming up with technology solutions, he said, "they don't have clue."

Fjord CEO provides 4 takeaways @MobilizeConf

Jay Fry wrote this tweet at

RT @elieljohnson: @olof_s the user is the OS, privacy is a currency, digital --> physical, mashup economy needs orchestrators #MobilizeConf

Here is the talk

CAN INVISIBLE ALSO BE AMAZING? DESIGNING FLUID AND CONNECTED EXPERIENCES

Can we fall in love with things we can't see? As the bond between mobility and the cloud increases, we will need to design invisible and seductive service experiences. Device-to-cloud interactions will yield new products that will adapt to device capabilities and context. But as bright and attractive as the future might look, we have to consider the ethics of money-making in this new age. Who will own user data, and is pushing advertising going to ruin user experience? This and more is covered by leading design firm, Fjord.

Speakers:Olof Schybergson - CEO, Fjord

And the slide with the 4 takeaways.

Google’s Joe Kava and AOL’s Mike Manos speaking at 7x24 Exchange Phoenix, Nov 14, 2011

I am heading to 7x24 Exchange Phoenix Nov 13- 16, and part of my activities besides blogging is to moderate a panel with Google’s Joe Kava, AOL’s Mike Manos, and Citi’s Jack Glass.  We have a prime speaking spot right after the break on first day after the keynote.

Joe, Mike, and I have been discussing the idea of a thought leadership panel discussion since the Uptime Symposium.  Our idea is to not discuss the technology, but the people in data centers and the challenges to find the best and brightest people for the data center jobs.  “Hunting for the Talent”

It is not easy to find the right people, and sometimes the innovative people come from other industries.  Semiconductor manufacturing is where many have come from, including Joe Kava.  Submarine design and operations is another.  Some of the most innovative designs are coming from the companies who have staffed up their own design teams – Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, Dell, and HP all have their own data center design and operations teams.

Here is Joe presenting about the Hamina Data Center

Mike is a dynamic speaker that makes great points.

Jack Glass is passionate about energy.

“We didn’t ignore energy in our designs,” said Jack Glass, Citigroup’s Senior VP of Data Center Planning. “My electric bill for North American centers is north of $20 million a year. Our team decided that we should be out in front of this issue. LEED was a joint decision between IT and real estate.”

The panel discussion is going to be a great way to discuss an important topic and we appreciate the support the 7x24 Exchange staff has provide for this unique presentation.

Facebook partners with Open Data Center Alliance to contribute Server and Data Center Designs

Facebook Open Computer Project and Open Data Center Alliance announced a partnership at Intel Developer Forum.

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, San Francisco, Sept. 13, 2011 – The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) today announced a collaboration with the Open Compute Project (OCP) on system and data center specifications to drive adoption of efficient data center and infrastructure design; spur rapid hardware innovation; and encourage greater openness and industry collaboration.

When I received the press release I let the PR firm know I was at Intel Developer Forum (IDF), and I could talk to the ODCA executive.  I received a call in 3 minutes and said they had a slot in 25 minutes.  I went upstairs and there was ODCA Board of Director’s Chairman, Marvin Wheeler, and Frank Frankovsky, a founding member of the Open Compute Project and director of technical operations at Facebook.

It feels like I have a reoccurring meeting to run into Frank – OCP summit in Palo Alto, GigaOm Structure in SF, IDF in SF, and OCP in NYC.  So, it was easy to quickly get down to what the partnership  is delivering.  If you look at ODCA models.

You may notice there is no server or data center models.  As ODCA is focused on the cloud.

We envision an IT industry that gives both users and suppliers a simpler, more secure, more efficient path to cloud computing.

With many people thinking of private clouds as well as public clouds, it would make sense for there to be a reference point to compare public clouds vs. private clouds.  Whose hardware would you use to build a private cloud that is willing to open source its designs?  This is where Facebook’s Open Compute Project fills a need, grounding the cloud to the reality of implementation on server hardware in a real data center.

Everyone has full access to these specifications. We want you to tell us where we didn’t get it right and suggest how we could improve. And opening the technology means the community will make advances that we wouldn’t have discovered if we had kept it secret.

…

Server Technology

Open Compute servers are designed to be efficient, inexpensive and easy to service. They’re also vanity free, with no extra plastic and significantly fewer parts than traditional servers.

…

Data Center Technology

Designed in tandem with our servers, the data center maximizes mechanical performance and thermal and electrical efficiency. It accepts 277 volts of AC, so more energy makes it from the grid to the data center to server components.

Both OCP and ODCA have  an end user focused leadership and take an open source approach which makes for a natural partnership between the organizations.  ODCA will present at the OCP event in NYC.

Members of both organizations are engaging in joint projects initially focused on rack-scale infrastructure; ultra-efficient server and storage designs; and scalable, open systems management. Additional details on these projects will be announced at the OCP Summit on October 27.