Downtime Data Center Social for planned maintenance, connecting the Thought Leaders

I like working in the Data Center Industry because of the people.  Throughout my career I have worked in specialized knowledge areas like packaging engineering & logistics, OEM product development, fonts, publishing and many others.  

Apple and Microsoft unified efforts to fight Adobe with TrueType in a font wars.  Which then led to the font groups in Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe fighting a war, but the industry was suffering.  Font wars are stupid as the end user simply wants something to work. So I spent time ending the font wars between Microsoft and Adobe creating OpenType.

Thank god I left fonts behind me in 1994 and have moved on to a bunch of other technologies.  But, it does remind that wars are many times destructive to both sides and users can be the casualties of the battles.

Luckily in the data center world companies are not fighting a war of their standards like TrueType vs. Type 1.  Well maybe the vendors are fighting battles, but the data center industry is no longer dominated by the vendors.  It is dominated by the companies who are designing, building, and running the biggest data center capacities around the world.  People who want to do the right thing and get the industry being more efficient, greener in its use of resources and energy.

One year ago we had the idea for a data center social and Mike Manos said Dave take a picture when else are you going to get this group of people together.  I didn't take a picture then.  Last night we got an even better group of people together.  Double the crowd.  And, I did take a picture.

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Of the venue without the people. :-)

With some of the top data center thought leaders connecting on a regular basis it is much easier for the industry to work together.  And not be at war.

The Downtime Data Center Social is in its second year, and a third one is going to be easy to do. Last night we discussed a Fall event possibly in the Pacific Northwest.  In the fall of 2011 a group of us went to NYC financials, and these companies are asking when we'll get together again.  We'll see if the Fall 2012 social works.  At a minimum we'll have a spring 2013 Downtime Data Social.

 

 

 

AOL's Uptime Symposium presentation without Mike Manos

Mike Manos posts on his AOL team attending Uptime.

Uptime, Cowgirls, and Success in California

May 14, 2012 by mmanos

This week my teams have descended upon the Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara.  The moment is extremely bittersweet for me as this is the first Symposium in quite sometime I have been unable to attend.  With my responsibilities expanding at AOL beginning this week there was simply too much going on for me to make the trip out.  It’s a down right shame too.  Why?

My first Uptime Symposium I got to tag along with Mike and learned the ropes.  This was back when Uptime was in Orlando, and there were definitely some memories that we all laugh about as the night went late into karaoke.

Mike is bringing key members of his AOL team to Uptime and reaches out to get to know his staff.

If you happen to be attending Symposium this year feel free to stop by and say hello to these amazing individuals.   I am incredibly proud of the work that they have driven within the company.

As many of my loyal readers have pointed out my controversial post on why I am not attending Uptime Symposium stirred things up  a bit.  Now, you could say look at the AOL people I miss meeting with learning the work they have done.  The easiest way to address this is to reach out to Mike and meet all of his team at a pub.  I'll see what kind of post comes out from drinking a few beers vs. sitting in a presentation. :-) 

GreenM3 travel Schedule for May and June 2012

May and June are busy conference schedules.  Just got back from the Open Compute Summit in San Antonio which was much better than I thought and so glad I went.

May 9 is DatacenterDynamics Seattle and I'll be a hall chairman at the event.

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i have had a few people ask me if I'll be at Uptime Symposium, and I am passing this year along with a few others I know.

We've agreed that 7x24 Exchange is where we'll get together. 

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On June 20-21, I'll be at GigaOm Structure who I do work for as a GigaOm Pro Analyst.

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Why I am not attending Uptime Symposium 2012

The following is an explanation of why I am not attending Uptime Symposium 2012

Many people ask me what Data Center conferences to go to.  Everyone is a little different.  The list of conferences to look at and I have attended are 7x24 Exchange, DatacenterDynamics, Uptime Symposium, Gartner Data Center Conference and Data Center World.

I've been going to Uptime for the last 5 years in Orlando, New York and Santa Clara.  I've had a great time at the conferences.

One of my best memories is my first Uptime Symposium and some of my friends said there was a Google guy attending.  i asked if they had talked to him.  When they tried to have a conversation it didn't go far.  24 hrs later I caught up with my friends and told them I had talked to the Google guy.  For an hour and a half and we sat next to each other during a few presentations.  The Google guy's best compliment is you are one of the few who get what is going on.  I have stayed friends with the Google data center guy who no longer works for Google.  And, that is why events like Uptime Symposium are so great to meet new people.

But, after 5 years, I find I am not meeting the new people, and it is too easy to gravitate to the people you know almost like a  reunion.  This year I was on the fence whether to go to Uptime Symposium or not. Many of my data center friends where skipping Uptime Symposium this year, and we said we would all see each other at 7x24 Exchange in Orlando.

For the past 4 years I have attended as media and even spoke on a media panel discussion at Uptime with Kevin Heslin, Matt Stansberry, and Rich Miller.  But, I am not a full time media guy.  And, I don't want to be one.  And that is the thing that helped me make the decision.  The policy has changed this year and only full time media people get media passes to Uptime.  i could attend the free expo and see the vendors.  Or I could pay the conference fee.  yah that is what I need I need to do is.  Not.

i'll miss a few people's presentation, but the nice thing is they can shoot me their presentations  if they want to me write a blog post.  I can read the slides and figure out what they are presenting.

What about the stuff I learn from watching Uptime presentations?  The #1 thing I learn at data center conferences is how much further ahead I am vs. what is being presented.  How?  Working in the tech industry in product development for over 30 years is a great background to figure out tough problems.  The data center insiders I know and the research i do has me thinking of things years out.  I blog about things, including presentations I think my friends and clients would find interesting.  One of the best parts of running this blog is how quickly I can have conversations with people given they have been reading my posts.

What about The 451 Group and their expertise?  I have never had a conversation with an Uptime person other than Matt Stansberry.  So, not an issue.

i will be in SJ the week of Uptime Symposium  though and a bunch of us are getting together.  Some are attending Uptime, many are not.  Here is a blog post on the social event last year.

With my current plan to attend 7x24 Exchange twice a year, I think I am reaching the main people I want to.  I meet new people there all the time as there is much more time to socialize.  To meet new people I go to GigaOm events, not another data center event.

Uptime Symposium was great at its time to learn the data center vendor ecosystem.  Who has the marketing money and what messages they are presenting.

I totally understand Uptime Institute's change in policy. I would like to thank them for letting me attend in the past, and making it easier for me to get off the fence.