Why so much of Data Center News is boring, Missing Controversy

The Cannes Film Festival is known for controversy.

: argument that involves many people who strongly disagree about something : strong disagreement about something among a large group of people

Part of the reason why data center news is so boring is the lack of controversy.  As Mike Manos spoke 3 years ago at Uptime, the industry has too many donkeys which are the opposite of controversy.

This idea came to me, because one of the event folks for Gigaom reminded me in the panel discussion I am moderating is be controversial.  Why?  Because it is more interesting.

CNN posts on the 5 most controversial moments.

Cannes scandals: 5 most controversial film festival moments

By Mairi Mackay, for CNN

updated 11:51 AM EDT, Fri May 16, 2014

Starlet Simone Silva poses topless with idol Robert Mitchum in 1954.

 

 

 

 

 

HIDE CAPTION

 

Robert Mitchum and the naked starlet

 

<<

<

1

2

3

4

5

>

>>

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Since its inception, Cannes has attracted protests, spats and stunts
• CNN looks at some of the greatest scandals to have rocked the festival
• Among them: Danish director Lars von Trier says he is a Nazi and is banned
• '50s starlet strips on beach and photographer breaks ankle in scrum for photos

(CNN) -- Cannes has been a hotbed of controversy since the beginning. The first festival, organized by the French in 1939 as a response to the Venice Film Festival -- then a vehicle for Nazi propaganda movies -- had to be canceled after it launched on the day WWII broke out.

Uptime Symposium's Cancellation of My Expo pass Confuses when Offered in the Past

I have gone to Uptime Symposium from 2008 until 2011, and in 2012 I was declined a media pass.  

Thanks so much for your interest again this year in attending Symposium. We have changed our policy in regards to press passes and will be limiting them to full-time (on-staff) journalists. I apologize for the inconvenience this may provide. You can still sign up for an Expo-only pass, which is free, which will grant you access to the exhibit hall, the Modular Data Center Campus, networking receptions and some sessions.

This year I signed up for the expo and my expo pass was cancelled because of a perceived conflict of interest.  In the invitation sent to me that many of you get there is wording that says if you are sponsoring or exhibiting you cannot get a expo pass.

The Complimentary Expo Hall Pass is not available if your company is sponsoring or exhibiting at Uptime Institute Symposium 2014.

Maybe on the invitations that get sent to me I’ll see this offer is not available to GreenM3 and Dave Ohara.  

I have received an amazing amount of support from my readers congratulating me on getting blacklisted by 451 Group. Thanks.

Now when people ask me whether I go to Uptime Symposium I can say I am blacklisted which ironically makes me stand out even more.  Thanks 451 Group, I take my exclusion as a compliment to being someone who stands out from the rest.

Off to 7x24 Exchange and Data Center Dynamics to see my data center friends which includes the event staff at 7x24 and DCD.

25% Discount for GreenM3 Readers to attend Gigaom Structure, only 100 discount tickets available

Gigaom Structure Conference “The Cloud is the Computer” is coming up on June 18-19 in SF.  The discount before June 1 is $100, but for GreenM3 readers there is a 25% discount available for 100 tickets who use the discount code here.  Below are prices with the discount.

Why go?  Check out the speakers.

First the big ones - Google, Amazon, Microsoft in the battle for the Cloud.

Scott Guthrie

Microsoft

EVP, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise group

Urs Hölzle

Google

SVP, Technical Infrastructure and Google Fellow

Werner Vogels

Amazon.com

CTO

Ex-Microsoft guys who I used to work with who now do lots of cloud stuff.

Bill Veghte

Hewlett-Packard

EVP and GM, Enterprise Group

Tod Nielsen

Heroku

CEO

And, the list goes on.  The event staff at GigaOm have done an amazing job getting top speakers in the Cloud industry.

James Barrese

PayPal

CTO

Andy Bechtolsheim

Arista Networks

Founder, Chief Development Officer and Chairman

Diane Bryant

Intel

SVP, GM, Data Center Group

Tamara Budec

Digital Realty

VP, Portfolio Operations

Adrian Cockcroft

Battery Ventures

Technical Fellow

Lance Crosby

SoftLayer, an IBM Company

CEO

Sumit Dhawan

VMware

SVP Product Management and GM Desktop Division

Sameer Dholakia

Citrix Systems

Group VP and GM

Bill Fathers

VMware

SVP and GM Hybrid Cloud Services

Stephen Felisan

Edmunds.com

VP, Engineering and Operations

Dan Kauffman

DARPA

Director of the Information Innovation Office

 Chris Kemp

Nebula

Founder

Vinod Khosla

Khosla Ventures

Partner

Marten Mickos

Eucalyptus Systems

CEO

Jamie Miller

GE

SVP and CIO

Jay Parikh

Facebook

VP, Infrastructure Engineering

Mitch Parker

Citrix Cloud Service

VP and GM

Taylor Rhodes

Rackspace

President

Sri Shivananda

eBay

VP of Platform Engineering

Brian Stevens

Red Hat

CTO

Jared Wray

CenturyLink Cloud

CTO of Cloud

Scott Yara

Pivotal

President and Head of Products

 

 

Disclosure I work for Gigaom Research part-time and they have created a special discount code for my readers.

Busy Week Next Week in SJ, May 20 - 22, 2014

I am from the SF Bay Area.  I was born in SF, raised in Saratoga, went to UC Berkeley, then worked at HP and Apple before heading to Redmond to work for Microsoft. Next week is part of my regular trips to the bay area to see friends and do business.

Here is a list of things I plan on doing.

• Chat about asset management, mobile, cloud, operations
• See Olivier Sanche’s family
• See my family
• Meet with friends at Facebook, Apple, and Google
• Host a party with data center friends
• Attend another party with construction friends
• Meet random friends who are in town
• Demo mobile stuff

Uptime Symposium Expo Passes are Open, except for me

I’ll be down in SJ next week meeting with some clients.  Uptime Symposium is going on at the same time and some friends asked if I would come by the booth to say hi and see their latest technology.  

Sorry I won’t be able to attend the exposition given my work with others companies creates a "perceived conflict of interest” (451 Group’s word) and I am not allowed to register for the expo.

Unless I change who I work with I will not attending any Uptime Symposium events in the future. 

There is no impact because I can meet my friends away from the booth or see them at 7x24 Exchange in Boca.