Biomass for power generation, show me the good shit for a Grass-Fed Data Center

My Missouri Data Center friends were in town and they showed me their latest biomass samples.  Here is some of the early biomass, low btu density.

Here is some higher density grass with a higher btu content that is compressed.

Here is a better btu sample.

And, then they showed me the really good shit.  Which has a composition of waste products added that contributes to a btu density as good as coal.

I've had a great time chatting with the Missouri folks and they are doing some innovative low carbon footprint energy generation projects.  We've identified the next stage of the project and who they will be contacting.

Some of the next contacts are the readers of this blog, and you are going to recognize when you see the really good shit (biomass) for a Grass-fed data center.

Cloud Start-up Bromium kicks off at #StructureConf, Secure Cloud Applications

The first talk at Structure was given by Simon Crosby who announced his new company, Bromium.

Bromium Raises $9.2M Series A

Led by well-known industry experts, innovative virtualization and security company secures funding from leading venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners

SAN FRANCISCO (Structure 2011) - June 22, 2011 - Bromium, emerging from stealth mode to develop technology in the areas of virtualization and security, today announced it has closed a $9.2 million series A round of funding with Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Founded by Gaurav Banga, Simon Crosby and Ian Pratt, Bromium is focused on the delivery of infrastructure solutions that permit enterprises to safely embrace two major trends in IT: consumerization and cloud computing. The rapid growth of new device types and consumer-driven device, application and network choices, combined with increasing mobility and the need for “anywhere, any time access” to enterprise data and applications, poses a significant risk to the enterprise. Similarly, the rapid adoption of cloud computing leaves enterprise data and applications vulnerable to attack. Bromium’s technology will permit the development of a powerful set of solutions to these problems and will help provide a more trustworthy computing infrastructure.

The Bromium Board of Directors is drawn from business leaders and technologists with extensive experience in infrastructure software, virtualization and security: Peter Levine, venture partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Frank Artale, managing director at Ignition Ventures; and George Kurtz, worldwide CTO and executive vice president at McAfee. Bromium has already attracted top engineering talent from Microsoft, VMware, Oracle, McAfee and NVIDIA.

Small world moment.  Frank Artale who represents Ignition Ventures investment in Bromium was one my bosses at Microsoft, and was one row in front of me on the flight from SEA to SJC.  Frank also wakeboards on the same lake I live on in Redmond (Lake Sammamish).  Frank is ex-Citrix exec so he knows the virtualization and enterprise space well.

Bromium is addressing the security of cloud applications.

Simon had a good slide on where things are.

And a cost of private clouds.

Simon had some great slides like this one with Apples and Oranges analogy.

Cisco Lab Manager Chris Noland loses battle with cancer, passes away on June 20, 2011

I just heard from KC Mares that Chris Noland, Cisco Lab Manager passed away last night losing a battle with cancer.

Chris Noland Lab Manager

San Francisco Bay Area

Information Technology and Services

Current

• Lab Manager at Cisco Systems

I had the pleasure of meeting Chris 1 1/2 years ago at Cisco to discuss his efforts to educate the Cisco development teams on the energy efficiency of their product designs.

The last time I saw Chris in person was at the Technology Convergence Conference.

Panel Discussion Topic: Data Center Challenges and Solutions in the R&D Lab

Moderator: Mark Thiele, VP of Data Center Strategy at ServiceMesh
Panelist: Chris Noland, Lab Manager at Cisco Systems Inc.
Panelist: Mark Honer, Senior Manager, Customer Service Labs Juniper Networks
Panelist: Val Sokolov, Senior Manager for Engineering lab services at Brocade

Unlike enterprise and production data centers, today's R&D electronics lab is a dynamic and constantly changing work environment with variable demands for power, space and cooling.  IT engineers expect as much autonomy and flexibility as possible in the way that they access their IT resources and then develop and test their IT solutions.  So, how realistic is it to believe that our new data center standards and "best practices" can be implemented in the IT lab as well?  Hear leading laboratory operators describe their challenges and barriers to success and explain how they have modified well established data center solutions to fit the needs of their unique R&D environments.

Chris was one of the guys who had a passion to green the data center by improving the energy efficiency of the network gear.

It is sad to hear I won't see Chris at another data center event.

A view from 10 ft high of my new kitchen and living space

My Missouri Data Center friends were in town yesterday and they came over for lunch and a bottle of wine in the evening after they had finished their meetings.  I've spent many trips in Missouri to their homes and even went on a trip to Northern Missouri for Deer Camp which I renamed as Beer Camp as I saw way more beer than deer.  One of the comments my guests made is they have seen pictures of the house on this blog, but the living space and kitchen are hard to grasp until you are in the space.  So, let's try to show the space from a different view.  A view from 10 ft high.

Here is a view 10 feet in front of my pizza oven at my height.

Here is a view closer - 3 ft looking in the oven.

I backed up got on a ladder and went 3 ft higher on the ladder.  I am now about the same height as the light fixtures at 8 ft.

From this angle I am now looking down into the oven.  BTW, love my new Canon 24-105 IS F4L lens.

A little better, but let's try higher on the ladder.  I go up to the top rung and my head is now at 10 ft.  fyi, the ceilings are 12 1/2 ft.  When you look at this picture here. You can see my reflection in the frame glass.

Here is this same picture shown from when I am standing on the ground.

Back to the ladder let's look at my pizza oven in the kitchen through a wide angle 38mm lens.  The refrigerator to the left is 78" high.

I shoot a level shot across the room from 10 ft in the air.

Coming back to the ground. Let's try a shot with my wife and son for some scale.

I have already made invitations to some of my data center friends to come on over for pizza, wine, and beer, and for them to make an excuse to visit the Redmond/Seattle area.  It was good to have my Missouri Data Center Friends as one of the first to see the house now that we are almost done.

For you mechanical and construction guys, here is a view of the structural steel in the ceiling.

Robert Gates's 7 management rules for managing the Pentagon, some good ideas for Data Center Executives

I am lucky to spend a lot of time with some really good data center executives.  When I read this WSJ article on Robert Gates's 7 rules for managing the Pentagon it reminded me a lot methods I see these guys using.  I can name about 7 guys who use these methods.  Can you?  One who used these rules is my dear departed friend Olivier Sanche.

Guideline No. 1:  Symbols matter. Mr. Gates is a Kremlinologist by training, Studying the Soviet Union convinced him that people watch what leaders do, and getting the symbolism right can help win people over. At the Pentagon, rather than calling the combatant commanders to him all the time, Mr. Gates made a point of visiting them.

Guideline No. 2: Listen to the professionals. Mr. Rumsfeld was criticized for running roughshod over the opinion of the Pentagon’s admirals and generals.

Guideline No. 3: Hold the professionals accountable. In the wake of the 2007 scandal overpoor care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Mr. Gates earned a reputation for quickly firing people. But he notes he never fired people for not knowing about a problem. He forced people out after they failed to fix problems once they came to light.

Guideline No. 4: Come alone, work with the existing team. Mr. Gates fell in on Mr. Rumsfeld’s team. And save for a few core people from the Bush administration that Mr. Gates asked to keep, he allowed the Obama administration to choose its own Pentagon political appointments.

Guideline No. 5: Lay out the vision, let the experts execute. Mr. Gates relished making decisions, taking in all the information he could about a problem then deciding where the Department should go. But he was not a micro-manager, and he left the details of how a decision should be executed to the military.

Guideline No. 6: Speak to all the layers of organization. Mr. Gates spread his ideas, like increasing the Air Force’s emphasis on drones, not just by ordering changes at the top, but also by speaking to young officers at the service academies and the war colleges, seeding his ideas in a new generation of leaders.

Guideline No. 7: Leave behind strong leaders. Mr. Gates said he worked hard to remake the Army, change its focus from major combat operations, to a broader array of missions including low intensity conflicts and training of local security forces. And he said thanks to the leaders he has promoted, like Gen. Ray Odierno and Gen. Martin Dempsey, there is little chance the Army will go back to its old ways.

Contrast this with Donald Rusmfeld's long pdf file.

The WSJ today has the full story of Mr. Gates’s evolution as a manager. But as an added bonus, Washington Wire has boiled the wisdom of Bob Gates into seven pithy “Gates’s Guidelines.” (Far fewer than the dozens of tips Mr. Gates’s predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, collected in his “Rumsfeld’s Rules.”