Innovation Powered by Analytics, "The New Know"

Andrew Fanara sent me link about "The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics" which fits well in the ideas to think about information systems for data centers.

Product Description

Learn to manage and grow successful analytical teams within your business

Examining analytics-one of the hottest business topics today-The New KNOW argues that analytics is needed by all enterprises in order to be successful. Until now, enterprises have been required to know what happened in the past, but in today's environment, your organization is expected to have a good knowledge of what happens next.

This innovative book covers

  • Where analytics live in the enterprise
  • The value of analytics
  • Relationships betwixt and between
  • Technologies of analytics
  • Markets and marketers of analytics

The New KNOW is a timely, essential resource to staying competitive in your field.

I am amazed at how little design and architecture time is spent in the Building Management Systems (BMS) and other monitoring systems like Andrew's company OSIsoft provides in data centers.

Information publishing is changing and analytics is were it is going.  Amazon gets this.  When I ordered the book, I didn't see it on the Kindle list (but it is), so ordered the hard copy book on Sat morning with 2nd day delivery.  Amazon has me in the system as a frequent buyer for my office supplies and here is the book 2:57p on Monday on my desk.

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I've discussed the idea of a data center analyst, and if you are interested in this new role, consider reading this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thornton Makes 2010 the Year of the Analyst, January 13, 2010

By 
W. PERDUE (portland ore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics (Wiley and SAS Business Series) (Hardcover)

For over 20 years, Thornton has been a consummate advocate for innovation science and the fruition of the role of the CIO in the Fortune 1000. He is an expert in organizational behavior, c-suite engagement and the kind of leadership practices that get the entire organization focused and engaged.
In The New Know Thornton clearly reminds us: it's about the people, people. This text will carry the profession and practice of analytics forward in a way that only Thornton could champion the cause.
Those familiar with Thornton May know that his work puts the capital W in wit, so of course, the book is engaging, charming and full of anthropological anecdotes that will make you chuckle in your plane seat. If you haven't sat next to Thornton, he is the guy with the bow tie that everyone wants to know. He's a futurist that won't give you the answer, but will twist your brain until you take his tools and define your own destiny.
If you're a business leader whose been burned by bad data, got spreadsheets coming out the ying-yang, regularly find your self on the defense about consultation expenses - and still you need better data from the people in the room - take Thornton's course in channeling the organization's inner analyst.
If you make your living as an analyst, for goodness sake, buy the book and make a decision that 2010 will be the year of the analyst. And then make sure you get in a room with Thornton soon. He's on the road over 250 days a year.

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$48,000,000 bet on ARM Server Start-up, Smooth-Stone funded

I've been blogging about the concept of a Little Green Server for the data center, and posted in Oct 2009 about Smooth-Stone.  Luckily thanks to some data center insiders I met the Smooth-Stone executive team and had the pleasure of being on a plane flight from SJC to SEA with CEO Barry Evans and posted again in Apr 2010.

After months and months of work the Smooth-Stone team announced their VC funding of $48,000,000 and now I can write a blog entry that Smooth Stone is funded.

Smooth-Stone Secures $48 Million to Complete Development of Semiconductors for Servers, Data Centers

Unique Syndicate of Chip Industry Leaders and Venture Capital Firms Back Smooth-Stone, Help Company Take Data Center Performance to New Heights with Cell Phone-like Power Consumption

Austin, TX, August 16, 2010 – Smooth-Stone today announced it is raising $48 million from a unique syndicate of investors comprising industry leading venture capital firms and semiconductor innovators. The capital will be applied directly to the final development and market delivery of high performance, low power chips that will change the server market and the makeup of data centers. Smooth-Stone funding partners include ARM, Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), Battery Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Texas Instruments Inc.

“This kind of investment, the amount, and the strength of this syndicate is a strong endorsement
for the innovation we are bringing to market,” said Smooth-Stone CEO Barry Evans. “We look
forward to taking advantage of the insights and know-how of these industry-leading investors.”

Others talk about Power as an issue for servers and Smooth-Stone will attempt to be disruptive.

“This kind of investment, the amount, and the strength of this syndicate is a strong endorsement
for the innovation we are bringing to market,” said Smooth-Stone CEO Barry Evans. “We look
forward to taking advantage of the insights and know-how of these industry-leading investors.”

Power consumption matters more than ever. Smooth-Stone will bring the low-power virtues of mobile phone technology to servers and data centers. Its semiconductors and software will provide a solution for companies where energy consumption by servers has become a constraining and expensive issue by increasing the density of computer resources while significantly conserving energy, cooling and space in the data center. Smooth-Stone customers will have new, unseen options as they plan their future server deployments.

“Our goal is to completely remove power consumption as an issue for the data center. Imagine
that change for companies with a large presence on the Internet,” added Evans. “They all deal
with the reality that as the mass of information grows daily, so does their power consumption.
Every day these companies are thinking about managing their data center sprawl. We want to
make sure that space and power are not constraining their potential.”

“The necessity of finding more energy efficient server solutions for data centers has created an
enormous and truly revolutionary opportunity for the industry,” said Battery Ventures General
Partner, Ken Lawler. “As a firm, we recognized from the beginning that Smooth-Stone had the
innovative technology, the customer value proposition and the engineering and management
capability to disrupt the web server landscape. Working with management, we’ve put together
a unique investment structure and syndicate of both strategic and traditional venture capital
investors that gives the company what it needs to succeed in this highly competitive market.
Smooth-Stone has a very bright future and we’re thrilled to be part of this investment.”

The Little Green Server is now funded and has market attention.

ARM backs server chip start-up

ZDNet UK - David Meyer - ‎52 minutes ago‎

A US start-up chipmaker called Smooth-Stone has raised tens of millions of dollars to develop and sell ...

ARM server chip startup gets big backers

Register - Timothy Prickett Morgan - ‎1 hour ago‎

There are a number of ways to create a power-efficient server chip for hyperscale applications like ...

Smooth-Stone Secures $48 Million to Complete Development of Semiconductors for ...

MarketWatch (press release) - ‎4 hours ago‎

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 16, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Smooth-Stone today announced it is raising $48 million from a unique syndicate of investors comprising ...

Chip startup seeks to lower electric bills in data centers

Computerworld - Dan Nystedt - ‎4 hours ago‎

IDG News Service - A new startup funded by major chip makers and investment firms is taking aim at electricity bills, the biggest cost in ...

Investors help Smooth-Stone chip away at Intel

San Francisco Chronicle - Ashlee Vance - ‎9 hours ago‎

A group of investors, including companies from the United States, Europe and the United Arab Emirates, has formed in a bid to disrupt one of Santa Clara ...

Green chip start-up gets $48 million in funding

CNET - Brooke Crothers - ‎10 hours ago‎

Silicon start-up Smooth-Stone has received $48 million from a syndicate of investors including ARM, Texas Instruments, and Highland ...

Unusual Chip Start-Up Raises $48 Million From Investors

Wall Street Journal - Don Clark - ‎15 hours ago‎

AUSTIN, Texas—Smooth-Stone, a start-up with an unusual plan to target the market for chips used in server systems, said it had raised $48 ...

Smooth Stone to Take ARM Energy Savings to Data Centers

Greentech Media (blog) - ‎19 minutes ago‎

Can a start-up begin to edge out Intel in servers? Historically, it won't be easy. Smooth-Stone, which came out of stealth mode for $48 million dollars from ...

US start-up seeks investors for mobile phone chip for server and data centers

DatacenterDynamics - ‎31 minutes ago‎

US start-up Smooth-Stone said it wants to hit up venture capital firms and semiconductor innovators for $48 million for the final development and market ...

Smooth-Stone Gets $48 Million Funding for ARM Server Chips

Softpedia - Sebastian Pop - ‎56 minutes ago‎

Though ARM chips have mostly stuck to mobile handsets and small electronics so far, it seems like they might soon make it into none other than the server ...

Smooth-Stone Gets $48M For Low-Power Data Centers

Texas Tech Pulse (blog) - ‎1 hour ago‎

Austin-based Smooth-Stone, a developer of semiconductors targeted at the data center and server market, announced today that it has raised $48M in a funding ...

Intel rival Smooth-Stone raises $48M

Bizjournals.com - ‎1 hour ago‎

Smooth-Stone Inc. said on Monday it has received a $48 million Series A round of funding. Austin, Texas-based Smooth-Stone, a developer low-power server ...

Intel's Biggest Rival: ARM Chips in Servers and Smartphones

Fast Company - Kit Eaton - ‎1 hour ago‎

Forget Intel versus AMD--that was a chip-maker battle of yesteryear, played out inside your desktop PC. Now the real CPU war is happening ...

Smooth-Stone, an Austin Technology Incubator Company, Lands $48 Million ...

PR Web (press release) - ‎2 hours ago‎

The Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit arm of The University of Texas at Austin, congratulates member company Smooth-Stone on its $48 ...

Smooth-Stone ARM server chips get $48m funding to take on Intel

SlashGear (blog) - ‎2 hours ago‎

By Satsuki Then on Monday, Aug 16th 2010 No Comments While ARM processors are generally to be found in ultraportable devices like smartphones, a significant ...

Intel's Franchises Might Be Disrupted by a Group of Investors

LB News - Jamie Harris - ‎2 hours ago‎

The Santa Clara chipmaker, Intel's franchises might be disrupted by a group of investors from different parts of the world. This group of investors actually ...

Mass. VC firms lead $48M data center funding

Mass High Tech - Galen Moore - ‎2 hours ago‎

Three Massachusetts venture capital firms have syndicated to co-lead a $48 million equity investment in Smooth-Stone Inc., a young, Austin, ...

Chip Makers, Investors Gang Up On Intel, Invest $48M In CPU Startup

ChannelWeb - Joseph F. Kovar - ‎3 hours ago‎

A group of chip manufacturers and investors are investing a total of $48 million in chip startup ...

Smooth-Stone wants to beat up Intel in the server chip market

Tech Eye - Andrea Petrou - ‎6 hours ago‎

A chip startup hopes to dent Intel's market share in servers by recruiting investors to help it build ARM based chips. Companies from America, Europe and ...

ARM and partners invest in server chip start-up

HEXUS - Scott Bicheno - ‎7 hours ago‎

Smooth-Stone is a start-up founded in January 2008 with lofty ambitions: to take on Intel where it's strongest - servers. Intel pretty much owns this market ...

Tiny ARM-backed Firm Aims To Beat Intel In Servers

ITProPortal - Desire Athow - ‎7 hours ago‎

A little known company, Smooth-stone, is looking to outclass semiconductor giant in the server market by introducing ARM-based microprocessors that can ...

Smooth-Stone to put ARM CPUs into servers

ElectronicsWeekly.com - David Manners - ‎8 hours ago‎

ATIC, the Abu Dhabi investment company backing Globalfoundries, has got together with Texas Instruments, ARM and venture capitalists Highland Capital ...

Another microchip investment from Abu Dhabi

National (blog) - Tom Gara - ‎8 hours ago‎

Can Samson slay Goliath? Taking its cue from the biblical tale of the underdog defeating the giant with a sling of a well-aimed rock, Smooth-Stone, ...

ARM, ATIC, TI invest $48M in server chip startup

EETimes.com - Mark LaPedus - ‎9 hours ago‎

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Startup Smooth-Stone Inc. has raised $48 million from a syndicate of investors, including ARM, Advanced Technology Investment Co. ...

Chip startup Smooth-Stone raises $48M in backing

Austin American-Statesman - James Brosher - ‎11 hours ago‎

Smooth-Stone CEO Barry Evans was involved in Intel's development of the low-power Xscale family of processors — the same Intel that looms as one of ...

An atom bomb aimed at Intel: Smooth-Stone raises $48M for low-power ARM server ...

VentureBeat - Dean Takahashi - ‎13 hours ago‎

Hoping to outdo Intel in the server chip market, Smooth-Stone has raised $48 million to complete development of its ARM-based server chips which consume ...

Smooth-Stone Gets $48M for ARM Servers

GigaOm (blog) - Stacey Higginbotham - ‎15 hours ago‎

Smooth-Stone, an Austin, Texas-based company building servers using the chips found inside cell ...

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Nvidia says its strategy is ARM

With the success of iPhone and Android as a smartphone platform the developer focus has shifted to ARM vs. x86.  Many will scoff at the ARM processor for not being able to do the work in the data center, but when you look at price performance and power performance the ARM chip is competitive.

CNET has an interview with NVidia's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang.

I also asked Huang about the company's strategy for central processing units, or CPUs, used in smartphones and tablets. Nvidia has been supplying its first-generation Tegra chip to portable music device makers such Microsoft, which used Tegra in the Zune HD. The second-generation Tegra 2 is targeted at smartphones and tablets but has yet to make an appearance in a product from a first-tier device maker. All Tegra chips are based on a design from United Kingdom-based ARM.

"Our CPU strategy is ARM," Huang said, referring to the fact that Nvidia was, unit last year, only a supplier of GPUs. "ARM is the fastest growing processor architecture in the world today. ARM supports (Google's) Android best. And Android is the fastest growing OS in the world today," Huang said.

Huang said that its dual-core Tegra 2 chips currently come in two flavors, the AP20 for smartphones and the T20 for tablets. "And both of them are being designed into products," Huang said.

Smooth-Stone is preparing a product line for data center performance with cell phone power.

Long time ago, x86 processors were laughed at as incapable to run data center IT.  It was a world of mainframes and minis.  Dominated by IBM, Digital, and others.  Where are those companies now in the server business?  Meanwhile Intel was selling tons of x86 processors in desktops and with Microsoft's help, Intel's x86 made inroads into servers.

Why can't ARM processors move from smartphones to the server businesss as well?  HP, Dell, IBM, and the dominant server vendors will help to fuel the anti-ARM server.  Meanwhile the ARM processors growth is fueled by smartphones.

There are technical issues like ARMs not being 64 bit, but people have figured out how to get around this issue.  Note: some supercomputers have  32 bit low power processors to keep their power footprint lower.

Is the future green data center going to have ARM servers?

How can it not?

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Seagate and Samsung to co-develop SSD for enterprise storage

SSDs use much less power and have a higher performance under some conditions than HD, but the uptake in enterprises has been slow and in data centers that want to be green.

CNET has an article on Seagate and Samsung co-developing SSD for enterprise storage.

Seagate and Samsung to co-develop SSD controller

by Dong Ngo

Seagate and Samsung, the two major makers of hard drives and system memory, announced Thursday that they have entered into a joint development and licensing agreement.

Under this agreement, the two companies will develop and cross-license related controller technologies for solid state drives.

Seagate is leveraging its enterprise storage expertise.

Seagate says that the joint development will build on the existing SSD capabilities of each company while combining Seagate's enterprise storage technology with Samsung's 30 nanometer-class MLC NAND flash memory technology. Seagate will then use the jointly developed controller for its enterprise-class SSDs.

Seagate's blog says the partnerships is to address SSD memory errors and lower cost.

Each company brings something unique to the table besides its market leadership. While companies in any technology field when marketing will tend to focus on the positive aspects of the technology they are producing or selling, we know that behind the scenes all technologies have challenges and hurdles that must be overcome. In the case of storage, it doesn’t matter whether we’re discussing SSDs or HDDs; engineers working with both technologies are most often tasked with limiting the number of data errors produced at the media. Think of it as the game of always looking to make perfect something that will always be imperfect to start with.  Seagate has great expertise in minimizing errors on its media and its current enterprise HDDs are best-in-class in the area of error recovery.

So that is at the heart of the collaboration from a technical perspective: error recovery and management. Samsung brings its flash technology expertise while Seagate brings its error recovery expertise to the table. Between them, the companies will look to produce a controller for SSDs that can attain the high levels of performance, reliability, and endurance demanded by enterprise storage applications.

Another interesting technical piece is the fact that today’s announcement references the use of  Samsung’s 30 nanometer-class MLC (Multi-Level Cell) NAND as the technology base for the collaborative project. MLC NAND enables higher capacities at a lower cost, but it has not typically been a target technology for enterprise use due to having lower endurance. However, the controller technology that Seagate and Samsung develop together with its advanced error recovery and flash management, will enable more cost-effective and long-life products for the enterprise space.

Seagate's press release is here.

"Seagate has long recognized that solid state technology has an important role to play in the comprehensive solutions the storage industry will deliver today and in the future, particularly in the enterprise market," said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO. "Today's agreement with Samsung will help us bring a compelling set of SSD innovations to the enterprise storage market, with benefits that range from enhanced performance, endurance and reliability to cost and capacity improvements. Overall, this agreement with Samsung strengthens our SSD solutions strategy, and positions Seagate well as global demand for storage continues on its strong growth path."

"We are pleased to be jointly developing a high-performance SSD controller with Seagate for the enterprise storage market," said Dr. Changhyun Kim, senior vice president and Samsung Fellow, Memory product planning & application engineering, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics. "Our green memory solution is designed to enable more energy-efficient server applications, which is expected to increase the use of NAND-based SSD storage in enterprise applications."

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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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