Four Potential Ways Lee Technologies + Schneider Electric are better together

I had a chance to talk to

Rob McKernan, President, Americas, Schneider Electric IT Business
John Lee, CEO and Chairman, Lee Technologies
Bob Woolley, Senior Vice President, Critical Environment Services, Lee Technologies

about the press release Schneider Electric released on the acquisition of Lee Technologies. 

The first thing we covered is the introductions.  I've had the pleasure of having lengthy conversations with John Lee and Bob Woolley.  Rob McKernan and  I had not met and one of the first things we started discussing is my custom house project and my new Woodstone pizza oven.  My oven is the Chuckanut 4' diameter, 2,500 lbs, 115,000 btu.

Where the first thing I was cooked was a roast chicken.

Some things can be done much better when you get the right technology with a good process. For fun I like to cook (process), and my pizza oven is my new tool.

Lee Technologies has been able to upgrade its data center capabilities now that it has access to the tools Schneider Electric brings.  And, Schneider Electric has picked up a bunch of skilled data center chefs who know how to operate data centers.  What are the potential results?

1. Top of the list is reducing the energy used in data centers.  As the Google guys have shared the initial commissioning starts the process to optimize the performance and as load is accumulated, the process continues to improve energy efficiency.  Reducing energy beyond the simple things of hot/cold aisle containment, requires more resources and sharing information across teams.  Schneider Electric and Lee Technologies are one example of a team who can support more complex energy saving projects.
2. Products with processes. Processes aligned with products.  Lee Technologies has the operations process expertise.  Schneider Electric has the products.  As one data center executive shared with me, you can talk about any of the products I have in the data center, but you can't talk about how we integrate the products.  The integration is our intellectual property and how we are better than most.
3. Condition Based Management (CBM) is becoming a standard in some industries, but is rarely discussed in data centers.  Taking the maintenance information (Lee Tech) and creating a feedback loop to products (Schneider Electric) is part of a CBM solution.
1. It is Department of Defense policy that condition-based maintenance (CBM) be "implemented to improve maintenance agility and responsiveness, increase operational availability, and reduce life cycle total ownership costs"
4. Take all these ideas and expand into emerging markets - South America, APAC, Africa, and Middle East.

BTW, John Lee is on my list of visitors to see my new pizza oven.  It's great when we can talk food, wine, and data centers.  And, best of all be at home.

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.