Capacity Planning and Asset Management Panel Discussion at 7x24 Exchange, data center executives from Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Facebook

I am pleased to moderate a thought leadership panel at 7x24 Exchange Orlando on June 12. 2012.

10:30 A.M.
PANEL: Capacity Planning and Asset Management

Data Centers exist to provide the environment for IT assets to support the current and future needs of the business. This panel featuring capacity planning & asset management executives from Facebook, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft will discuss a range of topics from asset life cycle management, how the groups work with their data center teams for internal and external requirements to run their IT services, and best practices to consider adopting. Collaboration and knowledge sharing is required in companies to manage capacity, and this is a unique opportunity to hear from three innovators on a topic you’re all familiar with and is  essential for future data center services.

Moderator:

Dave Ohara
Data Center Meme
Green M3

Panelists:

Tamara Budec
Goldman Sachs

Amaya Souarez
Microsoft

Heather Marquez
Facebook

If you'll notice one of the things we were able to do is get executives from Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Facebook to discuss an important topic.  It just so happens all the panel members are women.  Women who own the issue of asset management in their data center operations.  I've had the pleasure of having conversations with each of these people and knew when we nominated the talk, who were the people working on innovative ideas.

I am looking forward to moderate a thought provoking session that will discuss an important topic that rarely gets discussed.

If you have specific questions you think the panel should address you can drop me a line at dave(at)greenm3(dot)com

Did a Fear Factor motivate Facebook's acquisition of Instagram?

It is interesting what people do when faced with their fears.  NBC's Fear Factor has made a reality show out of this fact.

Was Mark Zuckerberg's fear factor moment is what happens if Instagram continues its growth, cutting back on Facebook's traffic?

My assumption is Facebook has data that shows how many images showing up on Facebook are linked to Instagram images.  At the rate of growth of Instagram, Facebook can see what happens to its image traffic. With $50 million of new VC money Instagram with 13 employees can add more resources and expand.  Worse case before Facebook IPO, traffic shows a change in traffic due to Instagram's growth.  $1 billion is cheap to absorb your top competition before someone else does or Instagram figures out a business model that allows them to collect revenue.

Washington Post discusses parts of this idea in their article.

Was Facebook’s purchase of Instagram motivated by fear?

View Photo Gallery — Inside Facebook’s Calif. digs: It’s been a little more than a month since the social networking giant finished moving into its new headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. On the 57-acre campus, employees can be found checking their e-mail while running on treadmills or talking on cellphones in telephone booths. Of course, they’re working, too.

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By Joshua Topolsky, Wednesday, April 11, 5:12 PM

It’s true — $1 billion really is cool. Just ask the guys at Instagram, who sold their mobile photo sharing app — along with their entire team (all 13 of them) — to Facebook for that astronomical figure this week.

One of the interesting speculations is the Instagram will move out of AWS to Facebook.  Can you imagine what it takes to move 33 million user accounts and data?

Another interesting data point is the Instagram user base is much younger than Facebook.

Instagram users are young and Facebook users are old

A new study shows that the two social-networking sites serve different age groups. Could this be one of the reasons why more people aren't celebrating the buyout?

Secret of the Innovative Thinkers, a beginner's mind

One of the best parts I like about the data center industry is the friends who are innovative thinkers.  It can difficult to identify the exact characteristics of who these people are.  One thing that I have found is pretty consistent is a beginner's mind.

The classic story of the concept of a beginner's mind is the empty cup.

Empty Your Cup

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A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen. The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted. "You are like this cup," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup."

Another explanation of the beginner's mind is in this video.

I can think a lot of my data center friends who fit the description of a beginner's mind.

Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts.

The phrase is also used in the title of the book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by the Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, who says the following about the correct approach to Zen practice: In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.

Saadat A. Khan suggests that "Beginner's mind embodies the highest emotional qualities such as enthusiasm, creativity, zeal, and optimism. If the reader reflects briefly on the opposites of these qualities, it is clear to see that quality of life requires living with beginner's mind. With beginner's mind, there is boundlessness, limitlessness, an infinite wealth."

A related term, shōshin (正真), means correct truth and is used to denote a genuine signature on art works or to refer to any thing or person that is genuine.

Dell Data Centers Solutions (DCS) turn 5, congratulations on years of innovation

It is not too long ago that Data Centers were far from people's minds when it came to buying server hardware.  Now, data centers and servers are intertwined in all kinds of ways.  All the OEMs now have data center groups.  And, Dell just turned 5 with its DCS group.

Barton George posts about DCS turning 5.

Can you imagine what things will be like when DCS turns 10?

All the best ideas begin on a cocktail napkin — DCS turns 5

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A little over a week ago, Dell’s Data Center Solutions (DCS) group marked its fifth birthday.  As Timothy Prickett Morgan explains in his articlesubtitled, “Five years old, and growing like a weed”:

DCS was founded originally to chase the world’s top 20 hyperscale data center operators, and creates stripped-down, super-dense, and energy-efficient machines that can mean the different between a profit and a loss for those data center operators.

This team, which now represents a greater than $1 billion dollar business and has expanded beyond just custom systems to include standard systems built for the “next 1000,”  all started on a simple napkin.

The origin of DCS -- Ty’s Sonic sketch - November 2, 2006

Ty Schmitt explain the start and napkin

Ty Schmitt who was one of the original team and now is the executive director of Dell’s modular infrastructure team within DCS, explains:

This was sketch I made over drinks with Jimmy Pike late one night after visiting a big customer on the west coast.

Green the Data Center with your creative, innovative, passionate team

I am kind of tired of hearing another technology that green the data center.  Why?  Because no one technology can green your data center.  Being LEED certified or a low PUE is old news.

So, if you do want to green your data center what should you do?  You need to empower your team to be creative, innovative and passionate about what they can do.

Mike Manos has a post on the creating a culture of Creativiity.

Creating a culture of Creativity….

April 10, 2012 by mmanos

I came across this talk by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) from 1991 about the process of building creativity.   I could not help but think of the applicability of building organizations that are creative.  In my opinion getting people out of the grind, the day to day blocking and tackling, into a place where they can begin to solve for things is more about the attitude and engagement of the team.  Its also one of the key cultural things I try to build in an organization.

...

I am reading a book on "Leading Teams" which actually requires me to buy the hardback book as it is not available on the kindle.

"Written with exceptional clarity and wit, and teeming with original, down-to-earth advice, Leading Teams is indispensable reading for anyone who works in teams, studies them, or wonders what makes them sink or soar."

-Harvey Hornstein, Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University

"This is the book I have been waiting for on team effectiveness. Based on findings and containing insights from the leading researcher on teams, Leading Teams has everything. It is engaging, highly readable, and full of practical, useful advice."

-Edward Lawler, Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

"Full of rich stories and organized into compelling cases, Leading Teams clearly communicates an elegant analysis of effective team leadership. A gem for practitioners and researchers alike."

-Chris Argyris, James B. Conant Professor Emeritus, Harvard University and Director, Monitor Group

"In Leading Teams Dr. Hackman takes his extensive knowledge of how to effectively lead teams and mixes it with insightful research and humor, providing the reader with a powerful prescription for improving team performance."

-Dave Bushy, Former Senior Vice President of Flight Operations and 747 Captain, Delta Airlines

Mike and I are having fun exchanging ideas, writing blog posts, and discussing all kinds of interesting things.  Some of the stuff we are discussing doesn't fit the typical categories. So, i decided one that is just tagged "Mike Manos"

I'll write more about the Leading Teams book when I finish it.