Google's $900 mil bid for Nortel patents shows how important networking is

Google posted on its bid for Nortel Patent portfolio.

So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the “stalking-horse bid," which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it's the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners.

The bid is reported to be $900 Mil.

Google bids $900M for Nortel patent portfolio

By Juan Carlos Perez

April 4, 2011 12:13 PM ET

IDG News Service - Google is bidding $900 million in cash for thousands of patents that Nortel will auction off as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, the companies said Monday.

As much as Google has its own patents, it is interesting they are the stalking-horse bid for 4,000-6,000 Nortel patents which you would believe are mostly networking base.  But, as their legal department explains they felt this is the best defense.

The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.

Is this the last of Great Steven Manos LV parties, now that Lee Tech is part of Schneider Electric?

Steven Manos asked me if I had any pictures from the party at Pure Nightclub in Las Vegas at AFCOM/Data Center World 2011

Steven Manos and Katie O'Hara (no relation to me Dave Ohara)

If you are having fun at a LV party the last thing you want is a blogger taking pictures, so I don't bring a camera.

Even though I have no pictures I do want to write a blog entry about the organizers Steven Manos (Lee Technologies) and Jim Grice (Ewing Industrial Park).  Great people are going to change the data center industry, and getting together outside a data center industry typical venue allows people to get to know each other which then sets up better discussions later.  For those who have attended the events, we have all made business and personal friendships at the event that were not possible at other events.

Steve and Jim who get the business value of providing a party where people can just have fun and not worry about being sold. 

I posted about the last party at Data Center World in Oct 2010.

One question I have is whether this will be the last of Steven Manos parties now that he is a Schneider Electric employee with the acquisition of Lee Technologies.

I did take one picture to share with those who wanted to be there.  Recognize anyone. 

Schneider Electric acquires Lee Technologies, who is next?

I had plenty of friends who worked for APC and they now work for Schneider Electric. My Lee Technologies friends have joined my APC friends and are now part of the Schneider Electric as well.  Here is the press release.

Schneider Electric acquired US based Lee Technologies, a leading services provider for data centers

Rueil-Malmaison (France), April 4, 2011 – Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, announced today that it has acquired Lee Technologies, a leading service provider for the data centers of the North American market.

Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, Lee Technologies has over 300 employees and generated sales of about USD 140 million (approx. €104 million) in 2010.  The company specializes in the mission-critical data center services, including remote monitoring command centers and on-site critical facility operations.  It caters to several customer segments including federal government, financial services, telecommunications, information technology and healthcare.

Lee Technologies brings to Schneider Electric capabilities ranging from consulting, site assessment, design, equipment specification and selection to integration, commissioning, facility operations staffing, maintenance and proactive 24x7 remote monitoring.  This full repertoire of services will reinforce Schneider Electric’s IT business skills in data center management and its ability to provide data centers, one of the world’s fastest growing end-users of energy, with the best standards in energy conservation and reliability.

I've had the pleasure of hosting John Lee, CEO/Chairman of Lee Technologies for a few glasses of wine overlooking Lake Sammamish, and I hope to have a conversation soon with John on the new opportunities for Lee Technologies.

“We are excited about the opportunity to join Schneider Electric as we have always held the company in high esteem.  We are confident that our broad and comprehensive offering for data centers will be well positioned to benefit from solid growth opportunities in the future” said John C. Lee IV, Lee Technologies, CEO and Chairman.

I'll write up a follow up post when I get interviews.

UN chooses Microsoft's ITPAC (Container) for African Green Data Center in Nairobi

Microsoft has a press announcement  on the UN choosing ITPAC for its data center in Nairobi, Kenya.

Here is the specific part on the data center - ITPAC.

The ITPAC technology helps increase IT efficiency and reduces costs in a number of ways. It uses outside air for primary cooling, removing the need for mechanical cooling devices, and is based on a modular design that can be used to make the ITPAC modules easy to pre-manufacture, ship and install onsite. In this way, it dramatically reduces the typical datacenter carbon footprint and consumption of materials, such as water, concrete, steel, piping and copper, along with reducing additional carbon usage associated with the packaging and transporting of servers, equipment and supplies. It also provides a plug-and-play infrastructure to enable the rapid deployment and refresh of servers both today and in the future. In terms of efficiency, many traditional datacenters operate with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio of 2 or higher. Through thoughtful and efficient design, cooling strategies, and site selection, Microsoft has been able to reduce the PUE of its latest datacenters to operate in a range between 1.05 and 1.15. The eventual PUE range for UNEP will depend on the ambient weather conditions, computing capacity and IT services deployed.

Earth2Tech points out that the leading green data center companies - Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo will be at Green:NET 2011 where I'll be as well.

At Green:Net, Microsoft’s Environmental Strategist Rob Bernard will talk about the company’s green data center designs and its connected cities projects. We’ll also be featuring a discussion at Green:Net between Google’s Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl and Yahoo’s Director, Climate and Energy Strategy, Christina Page, about green data center tech, and Greenpeace will release new data on clean power and the cloud.

Attending SNW, Storage Network World in Santa Clara, April 4 - 7, 2011 Santa Clara

A storage friend said he was heading to SNW next week. I said I'll be in SJ, he said the conference is in Santa Clara.  So, I checked out the site and it looked pretty interesting.  So, now I am attending, and I'll know one person there, but I am sure I'll run into other people given it is is Silicon Valley.

Experience the World's Largest Storage, Data Center and IT Infrastructure Conference

Join us for SNW where we bring together top information technology executives, leading product and service providers and key industry influencers for the world’s largest conference focused on managing information infrastructure.

Produced by Computerworld and co-owned by Computerworld and SNIA (The Storage Networking Industry Association), SNW features more than 120 educational sessions and presentations by top IT management experts covering today’s hottest IT topics — from cloud computing to energy efficient data centers to virtualization to storage -- and so much more.

Top Keynote speakers are.

Steve Wozniak
Co-founder,
Apple Computer
and Chief Scientist, Fusion-io

Tom Kelley
General Manager
IDEO

Randy Mott
Executive Vice President
and CIO
HP

What also caught my eye is #1 of 15 listed tracks is energy efficiency.

Choose from 15 Topical Tracks:
Speakers for Spring Include:
Venue Information:

1. Energy Efficiency
2. Data Management
3. Data Security
4. The Converged Network
5. Backup and Archiving
6. Virtualization
7. Data Center
8. Cloud Storage
9. Storage Management
10. Solid State Storage
11. Data Protection
12. Cloud Computing
13. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
14. Professional Development
15. Deduplication