Dell DCS Cloud Evangelist, Barton George

December 13, 2010 Dave Ohara

One of the main lessons I learned and had ingrained in my thinking when I worked for Apple is focusing on quality and not quantity. This same idea rubs off when I pick who I look to network with. I have only 157 twitter followers, 1,200 RSS subscribers to www.greenm3.com. my linkedin connection is only 200, and 80 Facebook friends.

There are many who want these numbers to be as big as possible. I don’t really care about the quantity as much as the quality.

One of the good connections I found only a few weeks ago is Barton George who blogs at http://bartongeorge.net/

About

What I do, and have done, for a living

Last year I joined Dell as their cloud computing evangelist. As such I act as Dell’s ambassador to the cloud computing community (I had to supply my own sash). I also work with analysts and press and am responsible for messaging as well as blogging and tweeting (you can follow me on twitter at barton808 and you know where my blog is).

Prior to Dell I spent 13 years at Sun Microsystems in a variety of roles from manufacturing to product and corporate marketing. My last three years there I spent as an Open Source evangelist, avid blogger, and driver of Sun’s GNU/Linux strategy and relationships.

I was lucky to connect with Barton at Gartner DC LV and after an hour or so chatting he asked to interview me to discuss the data center ecosystem.

The Data Center ecosystem of players

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As I mentioned in a recent entry, last week I attended the Gartner Data Center conference where I learned a ton. One of the folks I learned a lot from was Dave Ohara who consults in the data center arena. Dave is uber connected in this space and pens the blog, Green (low carbon) Data Center blog. Dave provided a bunch of introductions while I was there and sat down with me to do the following short video on the ecosystem of data center players.

Some of the ground that Dave covers:

What he covers in his blog Green Data Center

How do you go about building a data center and who are the players in each phase e.g site selection -> architecture/engineering design -> construction…

What are some of the key disruptions coming to this long standing industry e.g. cloud, Google

I am looking forward to future conversations with Barton as he learns more about data centers. And my learning what Dell DCS’s group is doing in cloud computing.

Mike Manos says Adieu to Olivier Sanche

November 29, 2010 Dave Ohara

Mike Manos writes a post saying Adieu to Olivier after talking to Olivier’s brother and wife in France. I couldn’t agree more with what Mike writes in his post. Mike and Olivier are special people in the data center industry and I had the pleasure of making sure Olivier and Mike met in person at Data Center Dynamics SF in July 2009 when Olivier was still at eBay and Mike was with Digital Realty Trust. It would be a bit harder to arrange a meeting with Mike at Nokia and Olivier at Apple, but as Mike says.

Many people know the public Olivier, the Olivier they saw at press conferences, or speaking engagements, and the like. Some of us, got to know Olivier much better. The data center industry is small indeed and those of us who have had the pleasure and terror at working in the worlds largest infrastructures know a special kind of bond. We routinely meet off-hours and have dinner and drinks. Its a small cadre of names you probably know, or have heard about, joined in the fact that we have all dealt with or are dealing with challenges most data center environments will never see. In these less formal affairs, company positions melted away, technological challenges came to the fore, and most importantly the real people behind these companies emerge. In these forums, you could always count on Olivier to be a warm and calming force. He was incredibly intelligent, and although he might disagree, you could count on him to champion the free discussion of ideas.

Mike does a good job of describing why I also enjoyed hanging out with Olivier.

Olivier was the type of person who could light up a room with his mere presence. It was as if he embraced the entire room in one giant hug even if they were strangers. He could sit quietly mulling a topic, pensively going through his calculations and explode into the conversation and rigorously debate everyone. That passion never belied his ability to learn, to adapt, to incorporate new thinking into his persona either. Through the years we knew each other I saw him forge his ideas through debate, always evolving.

The last time I saw Olivier in person was at SVLG’s Data Center Energy Efficiency summit where we sat together critiquing the presentations. A confession, Olivier and I were so busy talking which is why I couldn’t live blog the event. Spending time with Olivier was always enjoyable and took priority.

Olivier’s energy will be sorely missed by those of us who got to spend time with him.

It was in those types of forums where I truly met Olivier. The man who was so dedicated to his family, and the light of his life little Emilie. His honesty and direct to the point style made it easy to understand where you stood, and where he was coming from.

More information about memorial services and the like will be coming out shortly and they are trying to get the word out to all of his friends.

The world has lost a great mind, Apple has lost a visionary, His family has lost their world, and I have lost a good friend.

Adieu, Dear Olivier, You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Your friend,

Mike Manos

\Mm

Olivier’s passion is well expressed from his Facebook page.

My daddy is going to "Think Different"...

By Olivier Sanche · View Photos

An event 20 years in the making... I am going to fulfill a long time dream and join Apple next month to lead their Data Center team.

I absolutely LOVED my time at eBay. Some of the smartest, most passionate and amazing people work here; I am leaving far too soon... but I cannot believe that I came all the way here and would pass on this opportunity...

This was by far the hardest decision I ever had to make professionally, but as my next CEO once said: "have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

Olivier Sanche passes away on Thanksgiving Day

November 28, 2010 Dave Ohara

Update - here is a reference to Mike Manos's post saying Adieu to Olivier

I just received the bad news that Olivier Sanche passed away on Thanksgiving Day. What first comes to mind is Olivier’s great family who I have had the pleasure of meeting many times.

His daughter Emilie is the same age as my daughter (both born in Sept 2001) and was Olivier’s inspiration to green the data center. I met Emilie 2 years ago and posted on her influence on Olivier’s environmental passion.

Leaving the conference, I ran into Olivier Sanche who I had blogged about at the Google data center event. We were chatting and he was short on time as he needed to meet his family. Olivier asked if I wanted to meet his daughter, Emilie Sanche. Why would Olivier want me to meet his daughter? Because I was the one who helped tell the story of how Olivier’s daughter was worried about global warming and the polar bears were going to drown.

A fond memory is also when Charles Kalko and I went over to Olivier’s house with his family for beer and pizza after his last day at eBay to celebrate his new beginning at Apple.

Apple didn’t know how important a data center person they hired until I blogged about his transition.

Apple Recruits eBay Data Center Executive Olivier Sanche, Can Apple Change Data Centers the way they changed cell phone and media players?

I have been lucky to meet eBay’s Sr. Director, Data Center Services & Strategy, Olivier Sanche at a variety of data center events and discuss many different green data center ideas. Last week, Olivier joined me as a panel member at Data Center Dynamics Seattle to discuss Carbon Reporting: Risk or Opportunity. Olivier took a position different than many that carbon reduction is a must, and should not be compromised.

This is a sad day as Olivier was first on my list today to reach out as I fly to SJ tomorrow. To hear before I even start an e-mail that Olivier passed away on Thanksgiving brings an end to one of the best data center friendships I have made.

Olivier loved being at Apple as he could do things he could get done no where else. He had vision, passion, and drive to do the right thing, especially for the environment. One of the sadder parts is Olivier couldn’t talk about what he was doing at Apple, but we had many other data center things we could talk about without touching on any Apple topics.

My trips to SJ are going to be one of my saddest trips for a long time as I know I can no longer visit my dear friend Olivier. But what is even sadder is thinking of Emilie no longer having her awesome Dad.

James Cameron and Eric Schmidt discuss technology and the environment, “We’re the Comet”

October 29, 2010 Dave Ohara

Google’s Eric Schmidt moderated a two hour conversation with James Cameron

James Cameron on “Avatar 2″ and the Impending Environmental Crisis

On stage at a private event in Silicon Valley last night, legendary director James Cameron and Google CEO Eric Schmidt held a fascinating two hour conversation that touched on everything from the technology needs of the upcoming Avatar 2 film to the perils that face the environment if action isn’t taken.

Green was a dominant part of the conversation.

The vast majority of the conversation turned toward ecological issues when Eric Schmidt described Avatar as a narrative about the world’s ecology. “Why do you care so much about it?” Schmidt asked Cameron. “What is your responsibility and why are you using your significant perch?”

“Any movie can be a teaching moment, but it has to be wrapped in powerful entertainment,” Cameron stated in response. He says part of the reason Avatar succeeded was that it spoke to the human psyche and heart. Specifically, it spoke to something he believes we all know: that we’re becoming disconnected from nature and that we are on a precipice.

“If we don’t take control over our stewardship of our planet,” Cameron began, “the planet we bequeath to our children and our grandchildren will be in significant danger.”

The next part of the conversation focused around the statistics supporting Cameron and Schmidt’s positions on the environment. They said that 70% of species will be extinct by the end of this century if we do nothing to stop the rise of world temperatures. Both men pointed out that while an average temperature rise of a few degrees would be devastating, the temperature rise would be three times as great at the arctic and antarctic poles.

We’ll see how green the data center environment is for Avatar 2.

One closing quote stuck with the author.

While they covered a lot of ground (more than I can reasonably type up), there was one quote that really summed up Cameron and Schmidt’s thoughts on our treatment of the environment. It was in reference to the comet that killed the dinosaurs.

“We’re the comet this time,” Cameron said.

Google confirms Daniel Costello joins the company

September 7, 2010 Dave Ohara

DataCenterKnowledge was able to get the confirmation Daniel Costello joined Google.

Daniel Costello Moves from Microsoft to Google
September 7th, 2010 : Rich Miller

Daniel Costello discusses the use of PACs (pre-assembled components) in Microsoft data centers at The Uptime Symposium in May.

Google has confirmed that Daniel Costello, who has been a key member of data center design teams at Microsoft and Intel, has joined the company’s data center staff. “We’re excited to welcome Dan to our infrastructure team,” said a Google spokesperson. “He has a great track record working with Microsoft and Intel, and we’re happy to have him on board.”

Now that Rich has posted, watch the news spread to other media outlets.

Rich referenced my post as part of his.

Does Costello’s departure from Microsoft (first noted by Dave Ohara) tell us anything about what’s ahead for data center design at Google? Or is Google simply the next frontier for a man with Costello’s design experience? Time will tell.

Thanks Rich.