Why 7x24 Exchange conference is popular with my friends?

7x24 Exchange Conference Phoenix is coming up and now that it is two weeks away. I am checking in with some friends to see if they’ll be there.  So far I am batting 100% of the people I am looking forward to see.  Why are so many of my data center friends going to 7x24 Exchange Conferences?  At 7x24 Exchange Conferences there is a critical mass of friends and ideas that support data center innovation.  Almost every DC conference will claim it is driving data center innovation, but so many times the innovation is coming from the conversations not in the program.

I return to 7x24 to see friends and make news ones.  Is this just a social event?  No, there are good presentations which is the benefit of not using a “pay to play” presentation model.  Some conferences, a Platinum sponsor means you get a keynote spot.  Silver you’ll get a small breakout room. etc.

What ideas are discussed?  That is constantly changing which is part of why you return, and have had value from past conferences.

Disclosure: In the past I would meet most of my friends at another conference that I am blacklisted from attending, so I have an incentive to help drive my friends to a conference where we will feel free to talk about anything we want.  7x24 Exchange has been supportive and open to feedback on what it takes to be a data center event that my friends find useful for so many reasons.

Where can you find the 4 DCIM companies in THE Magic Quadrant? Gartner Data Center World 2014 exhibitor floor of course

The media picked up on 4 DCIM companies who made the Magic Quadrant.

Gartner has released its first Magic Quadrant (MQ) report on Data Center Infrastructure Management, laying out the market and positions for several DCIM providers across the four quadrants of leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players.

I went to Gartner Data Center World website to see if the above are exhibitors.

Have you ever known a company who makes the Magic Quadrant not be at a Gartner event?  So what came first being in the Magic Quadrant or being a Gartner Exhibitor?  Or was it simultaneous?  You get it.  There I go getting myself Black Listed again.  :-)

7 things wrong with Technology Conferences/tradeshows

I’ve gone to lots of data center events and a lot of technology events.  It is time for some changes.  Before change it is good to know what is frustrating to so many of us.

Here is list of 7 things that I find occur more often than I would like.

#1)  Public Relations staff at the event and companies limit what is presented, therefore discussed.

#2)  Event schedule is too dense.

#3)  Venue is not set up for discussions, so the best place to meet is the bar.

#4)  Too many presentations are not that good.

#5)  What is called a presentation is a sales pitch.

#6)  Conference is organized to service sponsors, not the attendees.

#7)  The event is boring.

Now imagine an industry event that tries to address all 7 of these issues.  That would be an event worth attending.

Why I attend 7x24 Exchange? They invited me to give it a try, and I like it

Sometimes it is hard to get someone to change their habits and try something new.  Years ago I was on the regular data center circuit - Uptime Symposium, DatacenterDynamics, Data Center World, Gartner Data Center Conference and a range of others.  Then I had a good friend who is a 7x24 Exchange Board member say you need to come to 7x24 Exchange.  No, I go to enough data center conferences.  Come on give it a try.  I know others who liked the 7x24 events so I decided to give a try.  Like Mikey.

I got another data center exec to give 7x24 Exchange a try and we both have consistently attended twice a year for the past 3 years.  I like 7x24 Exchange.  

Have you tried it?  Mikey would like it.  Oh I could have written this post using Mikey Manos as the subject.  :-)  Unfortunately, now that Mike is CTO of First Data Corp we don’t see him like we used to at data center events.

7x24 Fall 2014 Phoenix is open for Registration, Google Execs present 2X

7x24 2014 Fall Phoenix is open for registration.

Going through the program what caught my eye is two presentations by Google.

Keynote: Google - Beyond the PUE Plateau

In a white paper released earlier this year, Google presented a revised operations model for maximizing data center performance while minimizing energy use across the data center fleet. "Machine Learning Applications for Data Center Optimization" describes Google's progress with moving beyond the PUE plateau. During this session Joe Kava will briefly introduce the adoption of Predictive PUE across Google's Data Centers and provide an update on how the sites are reaching this goal.

Joe Kava

Vice President

Google Data Centers

Google- Renewable Energy: Keeping Pace with Data Center Growth

Increasingly, customers are expecting their data center service providers to share their sustainability goals, including ensuring that the energy supply serving those data centers consists of as much renewable energy as possible.  This will likely become increasingly important as major corporations move more of their IT needs onto third party infrastructure. As a carbon neutral company, Google has been a pioneer in this area. This session will focus on innovative ways that Google has used to source renewable energy for operations; trends in sourcing renewables; why this is important to Google; principal challenges moving forward; and Google’s plans for the future.

Gary Demasi

Director of Operations, Global Infrastructure

Google Inc.