New Energy Resource Management tool coming to the enterprise market

When I was talking to a VC this week, we were discussing Hara.

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Another company he mentioned was C3.

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There isn't much out there on C3, but there are job postings.

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One of the things I've always thought as a weakness of Hara is what their SW does.  But, Hara does have a great VC investment and excellent marketing.  Which makes a lot of sense given most of the people who are buying environmental impact solutions aren't technical software people.

But, this leaves the opening for C3 to come in with a SW system for Energy Resource Management.  Being a technical guy, I like the C3 job posting list.  Compare this to Hara's current technical job posting.

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So is Hara really just a reporting system?  Vs. C3 is trying to complex energy resource modeling.

Ideas move quickly, and the folks at Hara probably realize their weakness and are thinking of ways to compete vs. C3.

Compare the founder of C3 vs. Hara.  Siebel vs. SAP.

Hara founder.

Amit Chatterjee, CEO and Founder

Amit Chatterjee, Chief Executive Officer
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Amit Chatterjee is CEO and Founder of Hara, the fastest growing provider of environmental and energy management solutions. Mr. Chatterjee has been at the forefront of shaping a new category of business software and has championed the notion of organizational metabolism. Under Chatterjee’s leadership Hara addresses an end-to-end environmental and energy business process from reporting to reduction across an organization and its value chain. Mr.Chatterjee is a thought-leader on green economy innovation, energy independence and entrepreneurship. He has participated in prominent conferences such as the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, and has been a featured participant at Fortune Brainstorm Tech, Aspen Institute’s Clean Energy Economic Forum and the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change Conference. Mr. Chatterjee is a published author ofThe Post Carbon Economy and is on the board of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association. Prior to founding Hara he led SAP’s fast-growing Governance, Risk and Compliance unit. Mr. Chatterjee developed his strategic and leadership experience while at McKinsey & Co., working with clients such as SAP, Cisco and Oracle. Mr. Chatterjee has B.A. degrees in Political Science and Chemistry from UC Berkeley, with graduate studies at Stanford University.

C3 founder.

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Thomas M. Siebel

Founder and Chairman

Mr. Siebel is the Chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company with interests in investment management, commercial real estate, agribusiness, and philanthropy. Mr. Siebel was the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Siebel Systems. From 1984 through 1990, he was an executive at Oracle Corporation. Mr. Siebel serves on the Board of Advisors of the Stanford University College of Engineering, the University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering, and the University of Illinois College of Engineering. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Meth Project and the Siebel Scholars Foundation. Mr. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a BA in history, an MBA, and a MS in computer science.

Hara has the market now for environmental monitoring software, but long term I would place bets on C3 for a green data center software solution.

The CEO of C3 is a mechanical engineer.

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Edward Abbo

Mr. Abbo is Chief Executive Officer of C3. He was formerly Senior Vice President at Oracle Corporation responsible for Oracle’s application and SaaS products including CRM and ERP & Supply Chain products. Prior to joining Oracle in 2006, he was Senior Vice President of Technology and Chief Technology Officer for Siebel Systems. During his twelve-year tenure at the company, he was a member of the Siebel executive management team, Founder’s Circle of first employees, and led Engineering, Industry Products, and Sales Consulting organizations. Prior to Siebel Systems, he worked in a variety of sales and consulting roles at Oracle Corporation.

Mr. Abbo earned a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.

There are companies like Sentilla for data center energy, but there is no reason why a well designed solution shouldn't work across the enterprise.

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Data Center Problem Solving or Process, where do you spend your time?

In 1991 after 7 years at Apple I took a sabbatical and vacation for 15 weeks re-living a  childhood summer vacation experience taking off from Memorial Day to Labor day.  It took me 6 weeks to decompress, and I was thankful I took so much time off.  One of my realizations I had is I really enjoyed solving complex product development problems.  Passionate and refreshed I returned to Apple in Sept 1991 told my manager my realization and she said, "well it's nice you like to solve problems, but we are about process here."  By April 1992, I took the leap leaving Apple to go to Microsoft to work on Windows until 2006.

I was having a great philosophical conversation last night with Kevin Francis at Silent Partner.

Kevin Francis

Kevin Francis

Growing up in Austin, Texas Kevin developed an affinity for live music, tacos and a story well-told. That background somehow resulted in an ability to put complex telecom problems into plain language that non-technical executives can understand and profit from. Previously, Kevin learned the ins and outs of his field at leading companies such as MCI, GST and CRG West. It was at XO, however, where he first met Mike and developed a friendship which would lead to the origins of Silent Partner. When he’s not in his super secret laboratory cooking up strategy for his clients, he’s most likely enjoying a cold beer and watching live music or the Texas Longhorns. Hook ’em.

We first met a couple of months ago at a data center social, and had fun talking about Texas Longhorn football as I plan on taking my 9 year-old daughter next month to her first Texas Longhorn game and to see her Uncle who was an all-American swimmer for Texas.  And, while I am in Austin I'll see the guys at Smooth-Stone and Dell. 

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Last night Kevin and I got into an interesting discussion of how so many decisions are made by people who don't really understand the problem they are trying to solve.  And, this morning that's when it hit me.  Most people are going through a process, not a problem solving exercise.  And, this same issue of so many being about process, is causing the data center industry to be slow in changing.

What problem do you want to solve?  Many data center people want to build a data center to reduce their costs vs. collocation facilities.  So, this is a process of cost reduction. 

Silent Partner's engages with many clients who have network performance issues, scalability of their information services, and cost reduction.  The entrepreneurial start-ups are running into these type issues as they grow.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Pie Chart

We strive to stay at the center of our industry. At this point, we’ve experienced it all. We know what products, services, and vendors work best. We see how deals are struck and what dynamics are at play. We know exactly how much you can get for your money. We hear about new facilities before our competitors and we know which new technologies are being offered. We are essentially stockpiling information to give our clients every advantage.

If you try to take a process approach you'll many times go down a path of "covering your ass" do all the things in a way so you and your peers can't get fired which many times happen in IT as there is low tolerance for risk.  Risk-less development can be costly and ineffective, but it saves people's jobs.  Look who builds some of the most inefficient data centers and they are usually the most bureaucratic process oriented organizations.

To get out of this dilemma you can hire a good set of outside experts like Silent Partner to address the problems and not be focused on process.

Services

We never start with a price list. We get in a room with our clients and listen. Out of that comes all kinds of ideas, big and small. Sometimes we need to get them up and running, yesterday. Sometimes we need to sit back and take a more strategic view of the problem. Every solution is different.

The telecom landscape is constantly being populated and re-populated with new technologies, protocols, services, and vendors. We stay connected and close to the action—it’s the only way to ensure our customer’s success

BAR CHART ILLUSTRATING
SUCCESS RATES:
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Their client list is solid.

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Where do you spend the majority of your day in process or problem solving?

I try spend the majority of my time talking to guys like Kevin Francis.

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So a blogger walks into a bar with a group of Super Angel investors

Last night I met a friend at Rosewood on Sand Hill Road and it was entertaining watching the VCs and social networking.

The bar area was packed with the folks from Sand Hill Road - VCs, I Bankers and a few cougars....

For those of you who don't know what a cougar is.

What is a Cougar?

Cougars are Women in their PRIME: independent, sexy and wildly successful. They enjoy men that are youthful, fit with the same zest for life. Cougars are classy, confident women that already possess many of the finer things in life — but now want the young, hot guy to go with it.

What is a Cub?

To snare a true Cougar a man needs to be youthful, fit, unintimidated and of course sexually driven! These men can range from athletes to intellectuals, and from technologists to entrepreneurs and all points in between; they can come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they have in common is the desire to possess a sexually charged older woman.

But, to get serious discussions done, you don't want Cougars in the scene.  Michael Arrington of Techcrunch writes on a discovery he made going to a bar where the super elite angel investors were meeting.

So A Blogger Walks Into A Bar…

Michael Arrington

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Yesterday I was tipped off about a “secret meeting” between a group of “Super Angels” being held at Bin 38, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco. “Do not come, you will not be welcome,” I was told.

So I did what any self respecting blogger would do – I drove over to Bin 38, parked my car and walked in.

And here is what he discovered.

This group of investors, which together account for nearly 100% of early stage startup deals in Silicon Valley, have been meeting regularly to compare notes. Early on it was mostly to complain about a variety of things. But the conversation has evolved to the point where these super angels are actually colluding (and I don’t use that word lightly) to solve a number of problems, say multiple sources who are part of the group and were at the dinner. According to these souces, the ongoing agenda includes:

  • Complaints about Y Combinator’s growing power, and how to counteract competitiveness in Y Combinator deals
  • Complaints about rising deal valuations and they can act as a group to reduce those valuations
  • How the group can act together to keep traditional venture capitalists out of deals entirely
  • How the group can act together to keep out new angel investors invading the market and driving up valuations.
  • More mundane things, like agreeing as a group not to accept convertible notes in deals (an entrepreneur-friendly type of deal).
  • One source has also said that there is a wiki of some sort that the group has that explicitly talks about how the group should act as one to keep deal valuations down.

At least two people attending were extremely uneasy about the meetings, and have said that they are only there to gather information, not participate.

So what’s wrong with this?

Collusion and price fixing, that’s what. It is absolutely unlawful for competitors to act together to keep other competitors out of the market, or to discuss ways to keep prices under control. And that appears to be exactly what this group is doing.

There are many things that occur behind the scenes.

Back to the Rosewood story my friend says the valets are tipped to check out the bar call/text the Cougars what VCs (cubs) are in the bar, and they know whether it was worth the trip.  When I left the bar after my meeting at 7:30p the bar was 50% women.  Doesn't sound like the data center conference bar scene.  :-)  Off to Data Center Dynamics Chicago and Data Center World LV in the next two weeks.  But, one more trip to a VC today for lunch.

BTW, my friend and I are not Cougar targets (cubs) as we are both over 50, our wives are good friends, I am sure I'll hear it when my wives friends read this post, and the dumbest thing I could do if I wanted to keep this secret is to blog about a VC cougar bar.  But, it does make for entertaining reading.

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Yahoo's Data Center Future, Industrial Data Center Revolution

I had a chance to talk to Chris Page, Yahoo's Director Climate and Energy Strategy at Yahoo! Inc.  I've had the opportunity to watch Chris's presentations over the years at various data center conferences, and I was curious on what she had to share after three years at Yahoo!.

There has been ample press coverage and the Yahoo! team pulled off data center PR that sets the standard for responsible citizenship.  We don't have to name the others who throw data center events/openings, but few come close to what Yahoo has in being professional.

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Yahoo opening buoys hopes for attracting more

By By Jonathan D. Epstein

NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

Published:September 21, 2010, 7:33 AM

...

Carol Bartz, the Internet giant's CEO, joined Gov. David A. Paterson, Sen. Charles E. Schumer and a host of other state and local politicians in unveiling the new "server farm" at the Town of Lockport Industrial Park.

The project highlights the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's first use of a new environmentally friendly design that relies in large part on Western New York's cooler climate and the availability of low-cost hydropower to conserve energy and save on electricity costs.

"We're thrilled to unveil our world-class data center in Lockport and take an active role in the community," Bartz said. "Yahoo is serious about sustainability and is leading efforts to address climate change. That's why we believe in creating highly efficient data centers that minimize the impact on the environment."

So my first question to Chris was "what is next?"

Chris discussed how a low PUE is just a part of the effort.  There are efforts in power supplies, UPS systems, reliability of systems, load balancing across sites, compute with less watts, and decreasing water.

The Yahoo chicken coop (YCC) design will support Yahoo's expansion into new site construction which logically would mean going to Europe and APAC with the design.  And Chris said the engineering team was confident the YCC can work in many other regions.

But, going after the dozens of small changes is what is next.  Which brings up the approach of holistic system design and Chris used the term the arrival of "Industrial Revolution in Data Centers." 

But the danger of being an industrialists is the "robber baron" persona.

Robber baron is a pejorative term used for powerful 19th century United States businessmen and banker . The term may now relate to any businessman or banker who used questionable business practices to become powerful or wealthy.

Yahoo has demonstrated a socially responsible citizenship in data centers.  And as Chris points out there is an industrial revolution in data center construction.  Data centers are one of the fastest growing industrial segments, and the companies who have the most are the information industrialists.

Who are the companies who have the reputation of these industrialists/robber barons?

List of businessmen who were called robber barons

Yahoo has figured out they don't want to be on this list.  Google too.  The top financials - Wells Fargo, BofA, Citicorp, and JP Morgan are all sensitive to the environmental impact of their future data center construction.

Think about your data center impact to your companies brand.  You don't want to be listed as a data center robber baron who exploits the environment.

Green your data center.

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Yahoo scores PR win with Chicken Coop

I had a chance to interview Chris Page, Director Climate and Energy Strategy for Yahoo!

Part of what I was curious about was what others wrote.  I'll write another post based on the interview.

Here are some creative headlines.

Yahoo Spreads its Wings with 'Chicken Coop' Data Center

Reuters - Matthew Wheeland - ‎8 hours ago‎

Yahoo's latest data center, which we first wrote about earlier this year, brings the decidedly low-tech ideas of ...

Yahoo's Chicken Coop Data Center: Sometimes Low Tech Solutions Are Better

BNET (blog) - Kirsten Korosec - ‎9 hours ago‎

Kirsten Korosec has been a print and online journalist for more than 10 years covering education, politics and ...

Yahoo's new "Chicken Coop" server farm is a building that breathes

Core77.com (blog) - ‎11 hours ago‎

On a heavy Core77 blogging day, my laptop will become uncomfortably hot. And that's just one machine; you can imagine what kind of blistering heat a server ...

Inspired by the farm, Yahoo opens newest green datacenter

SmartPlanet.com (blog) - Andrew Nusca - ‎14 hours ago‎

The facility, just 20 miles from Niagara Falls and the Canadian border, combines the first implementation of Yahoo's “green ...

Yahoo Opens 'chicken Coop' Green Data Center

PC World - James Niccolai - ‎Sep 19, 2010‎

Yahoo is opening a data center in upstate New York that uses a radical new design to reduce energy costs by 40 percent, ...

Yahoo opens doors to self-cooled data center

CNET - Martin LaMonica - ‎Sep 19, 2010‎

Yahoo's Chicken Coop data center design takes advantage of the prevailing winds and outdoor air for almost all its cooling. ...

Yahoo Scores a Coop with Green Data Center Opening

Triple Pundit - Leon Kaye - ‎49 minutes ago‎

If you have ever visited a data center, you have to agree that they are pretty cool. ...

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