Mike Manos Comments on Changing Data Center Construction

I wrote my post on the issues with change and the green the data center on Aug 16.

Aug 16, 2009

#1 Challenge to Green The Data Center, Resistance to Change

I’ve been slow blogging this week as I have been making some changes in my business relationships and it has required a lot of my time.  I guess I was in a mood for change as Olivier Sanche announced his big change going to Apple.  My change isn’t even close to being newsworthy, but it effects who I work with, and it was time to change.

I just read a blogger Hugh MacLeod post and have his book.

zzzzaxxxx03.jpg

Turns out Mike Manos wrote his post on changing data center construction on Aug 14.

Changing An Industry of Cottage Industries

August 14, 2009 by mmanos

If you happen to be following the news around Digital Realty Trust you may have seen the recent announcement of our Pod Architecture Services (PAS) offering.   Although the response has been deafening  there seems to be a lot of questions and confusion around what it is, what it is not, and what this ultimately means for Digital Realty Trust and our place in the industry.

Mike starts with a good description of the state of data center construction industry.

First a simple observation – the Data Center Industry as it stands today is in actuality an industry of cottage industries.   Its an industry dominated by boutique firms in specialized niches all in support of the building out of these large technically complex facilities.  For the initiated its a world full of religious arguments like battery versus rotary, air-side economization versus water-side economization, raised floor versus no raised floor.  To the uninitiated its an industry categorized by mysterious wizards of calculus and fluid dynamics and magical electrical energies.  Its an illusion the wizards of the collective cottage industries are well paid and incented to keep up.   They ply their trade in ensuring that each facility’s creation is a one-off event, and likewise, so is the next one.  Its a world of competing General Contractors, architecture firms, competing electrical and mechanical firms, of specialists in all sizes, shapes and colors.   Ultimately – in my mind there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.  Everyone has the right to earn a buck no matter how inefficient the process.

And, Mike points to a key flaws in data center design methodology.

Many designs like to optimize around the technology, or around the upfront facility costs, or drive significant complexity in design to ensure that every possible corner case is covered in the facility.  But the fact is if you cut corners up front, you potentially  pay for it over the life of the asset, if you look for the most technologically advanced gear or provide for lots of levers, knobs, and buttons for the ultimate flexibility you open yourself up for more human error or drive more costs in the ongoing operation of the facility.   The owners perspective is incredibly important.    Many times companies allow these decisions to be made by their partner firms (the cottage industries) and this view gets clouded.  Given the complexity of these buildings and the fact that they are not built often by the customers in the first time its hard to maintain that owners perspective without dedicated and vigilant attention.  PAS changes all that as the designs have already been optimized and companies can simply purchase the product they most desire with the guarantee of what they receive on the other end of the process, is what they expected.

If you read Mike’s whole post he explains how Digital Realty Trust’s POD Architecture Services addresses the flaws.

Mike started his post concerned with the confusion from the industry.  The below from my post can help explain.

If your idea is so good that it changes your dynamic enough to where you need them less, or God forbid, THE MARKET needs them less, then they're going to resist your idea every chance they can.

Again, that's human nature.

GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.

When I read the announcement of POD Architecture Services, it was clear to me what Digital Realty Trust was trying to do, but I am ready for a change.  The market confusion is caused be resistant to change.

Read more

#1 Challenge to Green The Data Center, Resistance to Change

I’ve been slow blogging this week as I have been making some changes in my business relationships and it has required a lot of my time.  I guess I was in a mood for change as Olivier Sanche announced his big change going to Apple.  My change isn’t even close to being newsworthy, but it effects who I work with, and it was time to change.

I just read a blogger Hugh MacLeod post and have his book.

zzzzaxxxx03.jpg

1. Ignore everybody.


The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn't I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever?
You don't know if your idea is any good the moment it's created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is. There's a reason why feelings scare us.

And asking close friends never works quite as well as you hope, either. It's not that they deliberately want to be unhelpful. It's just they don't know your world one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain.

Plus a big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they don't want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you also changes. They like things the way they are, that's how they love you- the way you are, not the way you may become.

Ergo, they have no incentive to see you change. And they will be resistant to anything that catalyzes it. That's human nature. And you would do the same, if the shoe was on the other foot.

With business colleagues it's even worse. They're used to dealing with you in a certain way. They're used to having a certain level of control over the relationship. And they want whatever makes them more prosperous. Sure, they might prefer it if you prosper as well, but that's not their top priority.

If your idea is so good that it changes your dynamic enough to where you need them less, or God forbid, THE MARKET needs them less, then they're going to resist your idea every chance they can.

Again, that's human nature.

GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.

This post resonated with where I am at.

The good thing is now that I have removed the controlling business relationships, I can go back to my vision of how to green the data center.

The #1 Challenge to Green The Data Center is the Resistance to change.

The title of Hugh MacLeod’s book is motivating.

image

Read more

AS/400 Technology for Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme, another reason to retire the old energy efficient hardware

If an energy efficient consultant had audited Bernard Madoff’s operations he would have found an AS/400 running.  Here is an interesting tidbit on the Madoff Ponzi scam.

An AS/400 was critical to Madoff's Ponzi scheme

Computers don't steal, investment bankers do

By Nick Farrell

Friday, 14 August 2009, 12:41

AN ANCIENT IBM AS/400 was crucial to US investment swindler Bernard Madoff's cunning Ponzi scam whereby he made off with huge wodges of other people's cash.

According to a new book, "Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff", author Erin Arvedlund claims that Madoff could not have managed his elaborate fraud without his old clunker of a mid-range computer system.

The IBM AS/400 was used by him and select other employees to print out fake account statements. What they would do was punch in fake trades on the IBM AS/400 and enter share prices that would square with his consistent but imaginary returns on the billions that customers entrusted to his firm.

Central to the scam was that "no one touched" the computer but Madoff. But that would have been a safe bet as no one would want to get their paws on an ancient AS/400 unless they were a real enthusiast.

As one of the founders of the NASDAQ stock exchange, Madoff was one of the pioneers of Wall Street trading technology. If he could make his IBM AS/400 lie to his clientele then we can see why he was so keen on computers.

If you find old energy efficient hardware running in your data center and you are suspicious why they won’t upgrade and retire the old hardware, there is a chance someone who just like Madoff wants to keep the hardware for their own personal gains and their career.

I wonder if IBM could have virtualized the AS/400 instance onto new hardware, but then more people would have access to the system.  Madoff would have stopped that energy efficiency change.

Read more

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. 

Below is a summary of the panel members.  We had a nice balance having an engineering firm (Callison), Switch and Data (hosting), eBay (data centers and applications).  We were also lucky to have Charles Kalko from eBay join us as he brought in the view of the software and services running in the data center and their role in Carbon.  Charles discussed Green Metrics for the data center and eBay’s support for the use of The Green Grid’s DCeP metric.

PANEL: Carbon: Risk or Opportunity?
Implementing a Strategy to Manage Your Data Center's Carbon Risk Exposure
David Ohara, Founder and Architect - Green M3
Leonard A. Ruff AIA, Director - Callison Architecture
Herb Villa, Customer Solutions Engineer - Switch & Data

Charles Kalko, Operation Excellence Program Lead, eBay
Olivier Sanche, Senior Director, Data Centers Services & Strategy – eBay

Global carbon regulation is arguably the largest risk and opportunity most corporations will face in the beginning of the 21st century. Voluntary and mandatory reporting protocols are emerging. Questions we will ask:

Some of the discussion went to the practical side of financial costs, consolidation, energy efficiency, and what the industry accepts as standard practice. And, we could count on Olivier to be ready with a passionate view on doing the right thing for the environment, adding issues about water consumption, eWaste, and other environmental concerns beyond simply the power consumed. Watching Olivier reminded me of the focus we had on features that were absolute must haves while I was at Apple. 

An example of the passion for pushing for the right thing is when I was at Apple, working on the Macintosh II RGB monitor team. They had a quality requirement for the RGB gun convergence across the whole display area.  The guys at Sony said that is not possible, the standard we all use is like a bulls eye target where convergence is best in the middle, and as you get to the edges misconvergence is acceptable.  IBM has been doing this for years for the PC, and it was the accepted standard (Keep in mind this was in 1986, well before Windows).

Our design lead, Brian Berkeley was adamant about the convergence specification applying across the whole screen.  He finally showed the Sony guys what a Mac display looked like.  "look what we have in the corners of the screen, the Apple icon, the pull down menus, the trash can. there are things are around the edges."  The Sony guys gave in, and the Mac II RGB monitor was the must have monitor for the Mac II, and Apple had an inventory shortage of RGB monitors as forecasting misread the market demanding 90% of the monitors be RGB.  Apple went against the industry standard pushing for what consumers would want to buy.

I tell this story, because Olivier gave me a call to let me know he accepted Apple’s Director of Global Data Center Operations position. I don’t think Olivier could resist the opportunity to build and operate data centers where the user experience is the highest priority.  I bet Olivier’s passion to green the data center and being environmentally sensitive to the impacts of his data center practices was part of the reason why he stood out versus others who interviewed for the job.

Personally, I think Olivier is the absolute right guy for Apple at the right time.  Coincidentally, I recently wrote this post about Greenpeace possibly targeting Apple Data Centers. There is no other person I can think of who could better prepare Apple for Greening the Data Center.  Olivier is one of the few data center managers who uses a Mac, and he craves the moment he can drop the blackberry and switch to the iPhone.

I am sad in some ways, as eBay has been quite open to discuss its data center practices.  Below are a few pictures of Olivier and his team.IMG_0828IMG_0843

Going to Apple will most likely quiet Olivier Sanche's voice in the industry.  But, who knows.  Olivier may change that as well. Here is Olivier speaking at Google’s data center summit.

One of the questions for the panel members was on subject of green and sustainability.

Ken Brill gave a practical view of show me the money. Green is overhyped and a clear ROI needs to be established for projects.

Olivier Sanche starts by telling the story of his child telling him how the polar bears are drowning, then he thinks he is potentially building a data center that will have a bigger impact to global warming than any other action he has as an individual.  Olivier tells his team we need to do the right thing, and how we impact the environment is part of the equation.

Good Luck, Olivier.  I am placing my bets Apple will change the data center industry the way they changed cell phones and media players with the iPhone and iPod.  It is not just the environmental issues, there are huge opportunities to leverage the data center servers with client devices - iPod, iPhone, and Macs.  Photos, Music, and Video and the associated media industry is Apple's strength.  Google focuses on Search.  Microsoft focuses on Windows, Office, and competing against Google.  Apple focuses on consumers.

Who do you think is going to change the data center industry the most Google, Microsoft, or Apple?

Or maybe what individuals will change the data center industry?  Keep your eye on Olivier.

Read more

We need a Data Center Rap Video, check out Large Hadron Rap Video

Here is a rap video on the Large Hadron Collider.

When I posted this blog entry, there are 19,678 ratings with 5 stars and 5,241,299 views.

If you google search “large hadron” the video shows up #4.

Search Results

    Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  1. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing particle beams, ...
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider - Cached - Similar -

  2. LHC_Homepage

    Jun 19, 2009 ... LHC - THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER ... LHC Co-ordination schedule and status · Golden Hadron Awards · General Information and Outreach ...
    Photos - Cooldown_status - Experiment - OP home page
    www.cern.ch/Lhc - Cached - Similar -

  3. CERN - The Large Hadron Collider

    CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research - The Large Hadron Collider ... The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near ...
    public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html - Cached - Similar -

  4. Video results for large hadron


    Large Hadron Rap
    4 min 49 sec
    www.youtube.com

This may seem silly, but whoever comes up with an interesting data center rap video is going to get lots of traffic.

Read more