Where is Chris Crosby? Sitting right next to me, President/CEO DCS

I saw Mike Manos last week and we talked about where Chris Crosby was going.

Best of Luck to a Great Guy…

February 14, 2011 by mmanos

I just read that Chris Crosby has announced his departure at Digital Realty Trust. As an alumni of that great firm I can definitely tell you that Chris’ hand-prints are all over that company.  I had the pleasure of interacting with him, before I joined,  heavily in my role there, and have maintained our relationship since leaving.

So, where is Chris?  Sitting right next to me at the SNW conference in Santa Clara.

What is Chris's new job?  President and CEO of DCS.

Here is the press release.

Chris Crosby Joins Data Center Systems

Esteemed Digital Realty Trust Executive Becomes President and CEO
of Innovative Provider of Structured Cabling Solutions and Infrastructure for Data Centers

Dallas – April 5, 2011 – Data Center Systems (www.datacentersys.com) today announced industry veteran Chris Crosby will join the company as President and CEO and will have a significant ownership stake in the company. Crosby joins Data Center Systems from Digital Realty Trust, the world’s largest provider of wholesale datacenters, where he was a senior executive who helped lead the company’s dramatic growth over the past several years. Data Center Systems founder and current CEO Kevin Ehringer will work alongside Crosby in the new role of Chief Technology Officer and Chairman.

“Chris is one of the most respected people in the datacenter industry not only because of what he has accomplished in his career but also because of his integrity, passion and intelligence. We are excited about Chris’ decision to join our team and his commitment to build our company into the world leader in structured cabling systems and datacenter infrastructure solutions,” said Kevin Ehringer. “This is a perfect situation for both Chris and me. I will be able to focus on things I am passionate about, determining our customers’ needs and using those insights to develop state-of-the-art solutions that exceed their expectations. In his role as President and CEO, Chris will put his business acumen and boundless energy to work driving the company’s growth. It’s a great fit, and it positions Data Center Systems for a very bright future.”

Four Potential Ways Lee Technologies + Schneider Electric are better together

I had a chance to talk to

Rob McKernan, President, Americas, Schneider Electric IT Business
John Lee, CEO and Chairman, Lee Technologies
Bob Woolley, Senior Vice President, Critical Environment Services, Lee Technologies

about the press release Schneider Electric released on the acquisition of Lee Technologies. 

The first thing we covered is the introductions.  I've had the pleasure of having lengthy conversations with John Lee and Bob Woolley.  Rob McKernan and  I had not met and one of the first things we started discussing is my custom house project and my new Woodstone pizza oven.  My oven is the Chuckanut 4' diameter, 2,500 lbs, 115,000 btu.

Where the first thing I was cooked was a roast chicken.

Some things can be done much better when you get the right technology with a good process. For fun I like to cook (process), and my pizza oven is my new tool.

Lee Technologies has been able to upgrade its data center capabilities now that it has access to the tools Schneider Electric brings.  And, Schneider Electric has picked up a bunch of skilled data center chefs who know how to operate data centers.  What are the potential results?

1. Top of the list is reducing the energy used in data centers.  As the Google guys have shared the initial commissioning starts the process to optimize the performance and as load is accumulated, the process continues to improve energy efficiency.  Reducing energy beyond the simple things of hot/cold aisle containment, requires more resources and sharing information across teams.  Schneider Electric and Lee Technologies are one example of a team who can support more complex energy saving projects.
2. Products with processes. Processes aligned with products.  Lee Technologies has the operations process expertise.  Schneider Electric has the products.  As one data center executive shared with me, you can talk about any of the products I have in the data center, but you can't talk about how we integrate the products.  The integration is our intellectual property and how we are better than most.
3. Condition Based Management (CBM) is becoming a standard in some industries, but is rarely discussed in data centers.  Taking the maintenance information (Lee Tech) and creating a feedback loop to products (Schneider Electric) is part of a CBM solution.
1. It is Department of Defense policy that condition-based maintenance (CBM) be "implemented to improve maintenance agility and responsiveness, increase operational availability, and reduce life cycle total ownership costs"
4. Take all these ideas and expand into emerging markets - South America, APAC, Africa, and Middle East.

BTW, John Lee is on my list of visitors to see my new pizza oven.  It's great when we can talk food, wine, and data centers.  And, best of all be at home.

GreenM3 advisor executive, now Chairman of Halogen Media Group

Peter Horan has been a friend and advisor for years, and today he accepted a job at Halogen Media Group as Chairman.

Halogen Media Taps Peter Horan As Executive Chairman

Halogen Media Group, an online marketing firm focused on connecting “prestige” advertisers with social media audiences, has named former About.com and IAC (NSDQ: IACI) exec Peter Horan as its executive chairman. The announcement comes a day after the shut down of e-mail startup Goodmail Systems, which Horan left a year ago as CEO.

Horan’s role will cover two major areas, said CEO and founder Greg Shove, in an interview with paidContent. Specifically, he’ll be charged with building up the company’s audience strategy. He’ll also grow content sites in-house and will also look for companies to invest in or acquire as additions to its network.

Here is Peter's past job experience from LinkedIn.

Current

• Executive Chairman at Halogen Network

Past

• CEO at IAC Media And Advertising
• CEO at AllBusiness.com, Inc.
• CEO at About.Com, Division of Primedia
• CEO at DevX.com, Inc.
• Senior Vice President at International Data Group

Peter and I have had great conversations over the past few months on social media which fits his move to Halogen.

Our Company

Audience fragmentation continues to accelerate, so the usual media companies can no longer be relied upon to reach and engage the affluent audience with both impact and performance. Typical ad networks can provide reach and efficiency, but are not able to ensure the relevance and brand-safety that prestige brands demand. This gap is why Halogen exists - to provide prestige brands with affluential audience reach that enhances their brands, yet also delivers results.

Since our start three years ago, we have built the largest aggregate network of affluent users online, with hundreds of mid-tail publishers that reach more than 55 million users each month and an email subscriber base of over 10 million. Halogen's suite of capabilities includes custom editorial campaigns, high impact ad formats, behavioral and income targeting, and video advertising channels. Advertisers that have partnered with Halogen in the past include Rolex, smartwater, Trapiche wines, Chase Manhattan Bank and Harry Winston.

While Peter was CEO of IAC, ask.com was expanding in Moses Lake, WA with its data center build out.  It is rare to find a CEO who gets data centers.

Horan left his post as CEO of IAC Media & Advertising, to become CEO of Goodmail in May 2008. Before that, Horan was best known as the head of About.com during its sale to NYTCo.

David Kaplan
@davidaKaplanFeb 23, 2011 12:00 AM ET

Data Centers–best of both world’s creators and servers

Andy Kessler has an article in WSJ that asks a good question.

Is Your Job an Endangered Species?

Technology is eating jobs—and not just obvious ones like toll takers and phone operators. Lawyers and doctors are at risk as well.

By ANDY KESSLER

So where the heck are all the jobs? Eight-hundred billion in stimulus and $2 trillion in dollar-printing and all we got were a lousy 36,000 jobs last month. That's not even enough to absorb population growth.

For you data center geeks you can sigh with a bit of relief.

Technology is eating jobs—and not just toll takers.

Andy makes the point there are two types of workers.

Forget blue-collar and white- collar. There are two types of workers in our economy: creators and servers. Creators are the ones driving productivity—writing code, designing chips, creating drugs, running search engines. Servers, on the other hand, service these creators (and other servers) by building homes, providing food, offering legal advice, and working at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Many servers will be replaced by machines, by computers and by changes in how business operates. It's no coincidence that Google announced it plans to hire 6,000 workers in 2011.

Hey Data Centers are for creators and it has the servers.

Andy makes a little doom and gloom.

But be warned that this economy is incredibly dynamic, and there is no quick fix for job creation when so much technology-driven job destruction is taking place. Fortunately, history shows that labor-saving machines haven't decreased overall employment even when they have made certain jobs obsolete. Ultimately the economic growth created by new jobs always overwhelms the drag from jobs destroyed—if policy makers let it happen.

What do you think your job will be in 10 years?