Heading to LV at end of Apr, no not Data Center World, IBM Impact - social, mobile, cloud conference

A lot of data center people will be heading to LV at the end of the month for Data Center World Spring.

I have some friends who will be in LV and asked if I could join them for an evening event so I was looking to be in LV.

Then I saw that IBM has conf exactly at the same time called IBM Impact on Mobile, Social, and Cloud.  Huh, facility management professionals or social, mobile, cloud professionals with Forest Whitaker, Tim O-Reilly, Michael Copeland (Wired), Rich KarlGaard (Forbes), and Matchbox Twenty.  Which one should I go to?  Power and Cooling stuff we have talked about for the past 5 years or social, mobile, cloud.  On Apr 29 - May 1 I'll be at the IBM event, maybe I'll chat with some of the data center folks who are all the way down at the Mandalay Bay.

Cloud hits the Reality, The Physical Data Center Infrastructure is focus for GigaOm Structure

It is entertaining when people discuss the cloud as something that just is there whenever they need it.  It can be hard for people to understand the physical reality of a data centers.  And, even much more difficult to understand the relationship between a VM instance in the cloud and the physical infrastructure impact it requires.  How many VMs per server?  How many VMs per core. 

GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham posts on the next GigaOm Structure event June 19-20, 2013

Structure 2013: Bring on the practitioners!

by Stacey Higginbotham

2 HOURS AGO

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photo: (c) 2012 Pinar Ozger pinar@pinarozger.com

SUMMARY:

Are you going to the sixth Structure conference on June 19 and 20? If your business dependes in any way on the cloud and enterprise IT, you will want to be there.

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This year’s focus: The physical cloud

Looking ahead, we’re peeling back some of the software-defined abstraction to focus on the physicality of the cloud. Like how do we build special-purpose architectures for our apps? What happens when we scale beyond the confines of the data center with dark fiber or other distributed resources?

We’ve got some amazing speakers signed up already: from Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of VMware who will undoubtedly hit upon the business side of the cloud, to Adrian Cockroft of Netflix, who will talk about some of the practical issues associated with supporting a giant movie streaming service on Amazon’s cloud. And of course, we’ll have Amazon’s Werner Vogels back for his sixth appearance onstage, where he’ll defend the online retailer’s title as the king of the cloud. Just kidding, this isn’t a boxing match, it’s an infrastructure conference. So please, no wagering.

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This is my third year going to GigaOm Structure.  My first year I went as a media attendee for this blog.  The second year I went as a GigaOm Pro Analyst.  This year, the third year I am a speaker.

Disclosure: I work for GigaOm Pro as an analyst and have many discussions with the company regarding data centers and the cloud.

Top Three Talks for GigaOm Structure Data

Many of the hardcore data center folks don't go to GigaOm Structure Data.  This latest conference was dominated by Big Data presentations.  Chatting with a few of the old timers who have gone to many of the GigaOm conferences, there were three presentations that stood out.  Check these out to get a taste of what is presented.

 Paul Maritz makes a call for leadership for a Data Driven Future.  If you want to read the talk go here.

EMC’s Paul Maritz: it takes leadership to move companies toward a data-driven future

by Eliza Kern

MAR. 20, 2013 - 9:56 AM PDT

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photo: Albert Chau

SUMMARY:

What does it take to move companies toward a data-driven future? EMC chief strategist and Pivotal Initiative leader Paul Maritz spoke at Strucuture:Data in New York on how to move toward the future through human leadership and strategy.

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OM MALIK 08:49

This injection of web-scale ideas and practices into various companies involves a whole different kind of thinking, not just at the IT infrastructure level. It affects thinking at the executive level, at the middle-management level, and all throughout the company. People insist on seeing data as this special thing. I feel that it’s more about the culture of the company. If the company doesn’t have a culture of innovative use of data, there doesn’t seem to be much they can do to adapt.

PAUL MARITZ 09:23

I think it’s tied to business models. These underlying structures allow you to rethink business models, and unfortunately I’ve learnt that it’s very hard for an organization to change its business model. All of us become very comfortable with a business model, it allows you to look into the future, it’s your compass” that allows you to make predictions, and it’s very difficult to let go of that. It’s not so much a matter of technology, it’s the fact of a company coming at you with a very different business model. Amazon for example doesn’t have the same focus on managing brands in the way that a traditional retailer does. They manage a customer relationship. Their whole business model is predicated on getting value out of the customer rather than squeezing value out of brands or products.

Sean Gourley's talk got people to think about solving problems.  Sean's transcript is here.

Data science is not enough. We need data intelligence too

by Stacey Higginbotham

MAR. 20, 2013 - 8:18 AM PDT

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photo: Albert Chau

SUMMARY:

In his talk at Structure: Data, Quid’s Sean Gourley talked about the meaningful differences between “data science” and “data intelligence.” While one is concerned with correlations, the other is concerned about solving problems.

And, our talk on Capacity Planning and Asset Management made the top mentions as one of the top talks.  Our transcript is here.

Want a better/greener/more agile data center? Use the data.

by Stacey Higginbotham

MAR. 21, 2013 - 8:23 AM PDT

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photo: Albert Chau

SUMMARY:

Want to see big data in action? When it comes to planning out data center capacity, data can influence everything from the power usage to planning for disasters.

Disclosure: I work for GigaOm Pro as a freelance analyst and the panel are some of the best people I have encountered in capacity planning and asset management.   

Green A Data Center with Data

GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham posts on the panel discussion I moderated at GigaOm Structure Data.

I want to thank Tamara Budec (Goldman Sachs), Heather Marquez (Facebook) and Amaya Souarez (Microsoft) for joining me on a great topic to discuss.

Want a better/greener/more agile data center? Use the data.

by Stacey Higginbotham

1 HOUR AGO

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photo: Albert Chau

SUMMARY:

Want to see big data in action? When it comes to planning out data center capacity, data can influence everything from the power usage to planning for disasters.

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Stacey does a great job of summarizing the talk.

If you want to see the video you can see it here.

Off to my 1st GigaOm Structure Data Conference

I have spent so much of my life traveling I really don't like getting on a plane for longer than 2 hours.  In general I try not to make East Coast trips.  But, I do get to the East Coast a couple of times a year.  Tomorrow I head to NYC for my first GigaOm Structure Data Conference. 

Structure:Data
Mar. 20 & 21, 2013 – New York

The volume of enterprise data has moved past terabytes and into the petabyte scale. Companies need to determine the best way for them to store, manage and analyze all that information. GigaOM’s Structure:Data, now a two-day conference, assembles the world’s leading technologists, practitioners and business leaders to offer solutions and uncover new business opportunities.

The main reason I am heading out is to moderate the below panel discussion.  I do freelance for GigaOm Pro, so I get to chat with the GigaOm folks often, and I am looking forward to connect with East Coast crowd as I tend to stay on the West Coast.  Ins fact, I was able to get two people from the West Coast to come out for this panel.

SEEING EVERYTHING TO GET READY FOR ANYTHING: CAPACITY PLANNING AT SCALE

 

Do you have a problem planning for future infrastructure needs? Deciding on what to buy and what capacity to provision for? Then you should attend this session, where we examine the stories of four people with some of the most extreme use cases on the planet. Come listen and learn from those with responsibility for the biggest purse strings.

Moderated by:Dave Ohara - Founder, GreenM3 and Analyst, GigaOM Research
Speakers:Tamara Budec - VP Critical Systems and Engineering, Goldman Sachs & Co

 

Heather Marquez - Manager, Asset Strategy and Optimization, Facebook

 

Amaya Souarez - Director, Datacenter Services, Microsoft