Technique for Changing Data Center Behavior, focusing on people's thinking

After spending two days in The Pacific Institute seminar, there are some interesting ideas I like that identifies a problem in implementing new data center projects that  support a green data center.  One is the concept of sabotage.

Many Six Sigma implementations fail because of
sabotage. Not overt resistance, but the silent, subtle,
“so maybe this program will go away” kind of
resistance. People won’t likely be aggressive, but
will instead display what we call passive-aggressive
behavior. For example, a Six Sigma implementation
imposed exclusively top-down can create a
counter-force – a bottom-up, nonproductive
“push-back.” If this happens, there can be much
waste, frustration, and many false starts.

The following article is written by Ron Mevdev on six sigma projects, and much of what he discusses applies to the problems of implementing changes in data centers.  Rarely do you hear someone speaking on the issues of people in data centers. Why?  Because the data center speaker system is dominated by vendors and products who sell to data center builders and operators.  This group of vendors in general are selling how to solve problems by buying things, and the people factor is rarely discussed. Yet, some of the top data center executives are excellent people managers, building a team.  Urs Hoelzle and Olivier Sanche are two examples of people who have a loyal following.

I think Urs and Olivier understand this paragraph well.

SOLVING PROBLEMS AT THE ROOT CAUSE
But sometimes problems can be tenacious. Often
there’s a complexity that includes the most interesting
variable of all – people. If we want to change
for the better, a fundamental understanding of
how people think and how their beliefs affect their
performance must be factored into the equation.
An appreciation of the basics of human behavior
and performance enhances analysis. Better yet, it
helps managers and employees solve their own
people problems.

Greening the data center requires people to change their behaviors and thinking.

Which is why it is so hard.

Do your people sometimes feel like this crowd living in the past?  So many people are comfortable staying with what has worked in the past. How far back in history should you go and feel safe you can copy?  Last year, 5 years, 10 years?

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Thought Patterns for High Performance

I am spending the next 2 days in a seminar at The Pacific Institute on Thought Patterns for High Performance.

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The Nick Saban is a great story of how The Pacific Institute helped the Alabama Football team.  if this good enough for the #1 football team, there is something there to learn.

Psychology of the Data Center, learning from the Science of Football - Alabama’s Nick Saban

I just had a conversation with Tom Roth who introduced me to some of the work that The Pacific Institute does.  Tom and I had an interesting discussion on data centers as he is familiar with real estate development in Eastern Washington’s recent data center build out that has used up hydroelectric power which has little employment impact the original dam developers intended.

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One of the points well made is on what Adult Learners Learn and Retain:

  1. 10% of what we HEAR
  2. !5% of what we SEE
  3. 20% of what we both SEE and HEAR.
  4. 40% of what we DISCUSS with OTHERS.
  5. 80% of what we EXPERIENCE.
  6. 90% of what we ATTEMPT to TEACH OTHERS.

This is an excellent point on why some of the top data center industry people are quite social and interact with others.

For those of you who lock your data center people in the building, consider letting them out to let them achieve a higher performance.

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IDS launching sea green data center space

Rich Miller DataCenterKnowledge reports on IDS's ocean port based data center ship.

IDS Readies Data Centers on Ships

August 9th, 2010 : Rich Miller

In early 2008, startup International Data Security revealed plans to build a fleet of data centers on cargo ships docked at ports in the San Francisco Bay. After an initial flurry of publicity, the company receded from the spotlight amid industry chatter of funding challenges.

Now IDS is back, and the company says it has lined up funding and an anchor tenant for a proof-of-concept “maritime data center” that will dock at Redwood City, Calif. The first vessel is a former training ship for the California Maritime Academy that IDS has acquired and is prepping for renovation. IDS representatives say the company has lined up $15 million for an initial deployment of 500 racks of servers.

One of the points is the concern about salt water.

Concept Brings Curiosity, Skepticism
IDS said it has experienced the same mix of curiosity and skepticism. “A lot of the conversations we’ve had with data center operators have been around questions like ‘do you want to put this kind of equipment close to salt water’ and ‘is the rolling motion of the ship a problem,’” said Prince. “The reality is that the Navy has had data centers on war-fighting ships for 20 years or more.”

I've been on the USS Abraham Lincoln air craft carrier looking at some of their IT systems.

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The data center space is isolated as IDS says, but it is the cost of all the other systems supporting the space that is beyond most budgets.

I am curious how much lower IDS's costs if they were able to set up a floating data center in a fresh water port.

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Green Data Center Market $41 billion annual spend by 2015

Pike Research has a press release that says the annual Green Data Center market will be $41 billion by 2015. Wow!!!  This may be new elevator pitch of my blog, "I blog on a data center market segment that will be $41 billion by 2015."

Green Data Center Market to Reach  $41 Billion Annually by 2015

August 5, 2010

The IT industry is responsible for around 2% of the world’s carbon emissions and data centers are the fastest growing part of that footprint.   While energy efficiency has not traditionally been a major emphasis for IT organizations, the industry is now highly focused on implementing solutions that will reduce energy expenses and carbon emissions associated with data center operations.  According to a new report from Pike Research, the investment in greener data centers will experience rapid growth over the next five years, increasing from $7.5 billion in global revenue to $41.4 billion by 2015, representing 28% of the total data center market.

“Cost of energy has seldom been a concern for IT departments in the past,” says industry analyst Eric Woods, “and there was little incentive to invest in energy efficiency improvements.  But as data center energy costs become more visible, the financial benefits of moving to a greener mode of operation are being recognized by CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs.”

Rich Miller at DataCenterKnowledge also reports on this topic.

Report: ‘Green’ Efficiency Market to Hit $41B

August 6th, 2010 : Rich Miller

Companies don’t decide to “go green” with their IT operations because it’s fashionable. For data center operators, energy efficiency is a business imperative. That’s why reducing the energy use and carbon output of these facilities has been a visible priority for the industry for several years. If you’ve attended a data center conference or been pitched by a vendor in the past two years, you’ve repeatedly heard the “green data center” refrain.

Where is the $41 billion going to spent?

Pike Research’s analysis indicates that power and cooling infrastructure solutions will be the largest portion of the green data center market opportunity, representing 46% of revenue over the next five years.  Energy efficient IT equipment will be the second largest category with 41% of the market, and monitoring and management will follow with 14% of total revenue.

The green data center market segment is big enough that Pike Research has a report you can buy.

Pike Research’s report, “Green Data Centers”, examines green data center trends, and forecasts the size and growth of the market opportunity by region and technology through 2015.  The report analyzes new developments in power and cooling infrastructure, server, storage and network technology, and software management systems that are underpinning green data centers.  The study also profiles the strategies of key players in terms of their market approach, technical innovations, and internal efforts to create energy efficient data centers.  An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.

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Bill Gates says better Software Modeling is key to solve complex problems

About two years ago, I started down the path of studying software modeling methods that work for data centers.  Over the last 6 months I've seen more growth in this area. 

With Bill Gates making the calling for software modeling for complex problems, there is a good chance there will be even more growth over the next 6 months.

CNET's Ina Fried reports on Bill's conversation on software modeling.

 

August 6, 2010 12:35 PM PDT

Bill Gates: Better software modeling is a key

by Ina Fried

LAKE TAHOE, Calif.--A key to many hard problems, from using nuclear power to combating diseases, is better software modeling, Bill Gates said on Friday.

While it's not surprising that he's a fan of using software to help solve hard problems, it is somewhat surprising that there aren't already good models for some diseases.

"There's no disease-modeling software," he said, speaking at the end of the three-day Techonomy conference here. "There is none. Why is flu seasonal? We don't know."

Why model? Bill says.

He conceded that the models never get things right exactly, but he said, "You are a hundred times smarter doing it that way than just going out there (without such models)."

"What you are doing is constantly tweaking them to match the finite data set you have," he said.

Bill has figured out the modeling concept as part of the nuclear power project he has funded Terrapower.

For example, Gates said that it takes a really long time to get a new nuclear power plant technology to market, longer even than the patent that might allow a successful invention to be profitable.

"You are not going to have a lot of people putting down money when the length of the project is longer than the length of the patent," Gates said, speaking at the Techonomy conference here.

It's not even certain that one could do it in their lifetime and he said a lot of people like to focus on projects that will happen in their lifetimes, "particularly if you aren't that religious," a category in which he said he falls.

Although some areas need help, Gates said creating new forms of energy will lead to new wealth. "A few somebodies will get very rich making those breakthroughs."

If we knew a particular solar or nuclear technology were a sure thing, he said, our power issues would be complete. But, he said, "boy are there a lot of problems that need to be solved."

There are some people thinking of data center modeling, but only a very few are looking at the complexity of the total system, including social and environmental in addition to the economics and technical issues.  With time and the growth of modeling in other areas, more people will discover what Bill is talking about.

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