Earth Day + Data Centers = Remembering Our Dear Friend Olivier Sanche a man with passion to do the right thing and green the data center

Sunday April 22, 2012 is Earth Day.

For the past couple of weeks I have received numerous e-mails on Earth Day products, events, etc.

But when I get up in the morning and think of Earth Day and the data center industry the first that comes to mind is my dear departed friend Olivier Sanche.

One of the best memories and experiences in my life is to have spent so much time with Olivier, hanging out at the construction site, hanging out at data center events, sitting in data center meetings, his going away party at eBay, eating meals, meeting his family especially his daughter Emilie, and discussing the way things should be. Olivier had a passion that gave him the vision to do things few thought were important.

Here is Olivier at SLC at the eBay data center site.

Olivier speaking at Google's 1st data center energy efficiency summit.

When Olivier was on this panel he said the following.

Olivier Sanche starts by telling the story of his child telling him how the polar bears are drowning, then he thinks he is potentially building a data center that will have a bigger impact to global warming than any other action he has as an individual.  Olivier tells his team we need to do the right thing, and how we impact the environment is part of the equation.

This last part is why when I think of Earth Day and Data Centers I think of my dear friend Olivier Sanche.

There are others who I also think of who have the same passion of Olivier, and thankfully they are still with us, trying to figure out how to green the data center.

I think today is a good day to think good thoughts and what Olivier would do.

Why Compass Data Centers is a new category on GreenM3

Chris Crosby and I have been keeping in touch over the last 6 months as he comes out of stealth mode.  We talked briefly on Tuesday, the company press release went live yesterday, but I was on the road all day yesterday with flights and meetings. Today, I was able to catch up and discuss Compass Data Centers.  We had an hour and talked about so many different things, I can't write about all the ideas in one post, and I know we are going to be talking a lot more.

So, let's just create a category for Compass Data Centers.

The official press release is here.

Compass Datacenters Enters Data Center Market Offering New Direction For The Industry

For Immediate Release

Founded by Former Digital Realty Senior Executive Chris Crosby, Innovative Data Center Provider Poised to Dramatically Expand the Scope of Industry

Dallas – April 18, 2012 – Compass Datacenters, a new data center provider formed by Chris Crosby, the industry visionary who helped build Digital Realty, today unveiled its business strategy which makes dedicated modular data centers a reality for the 98 percent of the market not served by current wholesale data center providers.

DatacenterKnowledge discusses Compass bringing the wholesale market to new markets.

Compass, a new company based in Dallas, is planning to bring turn-key data centers to second-tier markets where demand is growing, but hasn’t yet reached the scale of historic data center strongholds like Silicon Valley or northern Virginia. The company says it is optimizing its data center design to fit the demand profile of smaller markets, while deploying its development capital in an efficient manner.

DatacenterDynamics discusses Compass going after underserved market.

“The bulk of current investment in the U.S. is concentrated in only six markets with data center products that meet the needs of a very narrow set of customers,” Crosby, now CEO of Compass, said.

”That approach ignores 98 percent of the potential overall market, which means there is a huge untapped market for an innovative company that can pioneer a solution aimed at that large segment of underserved customers.”

But, some of the best reasons why I enjoy chatting with Chris is captured in Andrew Lane's post on Mission Critical.

AJL: Chris, given your professional success to date, what’s left on your bucket list?

CC: Professionally, I’m already enjoying the freedom of thinking clearly about building a brand again. I get to figure out my own personalized approach based upon all of my experiences and the input of incredibly bright friends and colleagues. It’s freeing and fun. It’s almost like a disease when you want to have everincreasing responsibilities.

Personally, things have been great with this last summer off. I’ve had time to reflect on the fact I’ve had one blessing after the next in this life. I’ve gotten to see a lot of more of my wife and two kids. I’ve been coaching my kids’ sports teams. I’ve had date nights with my wife. Generally, it has been a much better balance for me, which is what I focused on accomplishing near term.

...

AJL: Our very own “Data Center Genie” (picture Bill Mazzetti?) Arrives in a puff out of a generator and grants you three wishes for the data center industry. What do you wish?

CC: One, humility. We need to realize that our industry behaves like a child in its early teens. You know the times that you think you know everything but you really don’t? Don’t get me wrong; this is obviously a great industry to be in, but think about how many new ideas that have already been done in other industries are being re-created here. We tout all these “new technologies” like we created them and own them. Modularity. Airside economizers is free cold air. Hot- and cold-aisle separation has been done in fab space for years.

Two, recognition. This is an industry that is going to require a different breed of athlete with different skill sets, such as process engineering. We need to promote its growth and success early to professionals as a career in order to keep growing at the rate we can.

Three, transparency. We need to start opening up to customers and facilitating allegiances and alliances. We need to help educate each other.

...

AJL: What do you see going on that you like?

CC: Everything about the space. Lots of capital in love with the fact that it is a high-cash flow, asset-based business. It is becoming mainstream. There is a tremendous energy and vibrancy to it, and it’s great to be a part of it and know why it’s going on. There aren’t too many careers where you get to be a part of something that is completely new.

Here I am getting a chance to go around again. I had a whole summer off where I fielded a lot of phone calls and gained a lot of perspective. It was healthy for me. I got disassociated from the personalities of the business and now have a clear refreshed perspective on the business potential. The result of this will be Compass Data Centers, essentially bringing rapidly deployable, highly customizable wholesale solutions to emerging markets. One thing I have learned is that I’m much more valuable and much happier at the growth stage. I’m not so good nor do I want to be managing the $1B to $3B in revenues stage.

One of the things few people discuss are really big crazy ideas. It can be too hard for some people to think out of the box.  It is so easy to talk about big ideas with Chris is he has  a Computer Science degree.  I spent 26 years surrounded with computer science type of people at HP, Apple, and Microsoft.  Being a good engineer, it has been great being immersed in the data center industry.  But, some of the concepts are easier to discuss if you spend time developing code.

There will be many more posts coming on Compass Data Centers.  Chris has figured out many of the same things I have, and now that he is going to execute them, blog them, we can start discussing them.

Greenpeace friends Facebook for Dirty Cloud campaign

Facebook is referenced as a friend of Greenpeace in the Dirty Cloud campaign.

Getting the internet off coal is a big deal. But here's why we can do it:

• It's innovative: Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are the most cutting-edge companies in the world and they don't want their customers associating their brand with a 19th Century energy source that is poisoning the air and wrecking our climate.

It's practical: technology that uses clean and unlimited energy sources like the sun and the wind are available today at the scale required. Greenpeace is already working with Facebook to make the switch right now and we'd be happy to work with other major tech companies.

Greenpeace creates Dirty Cloud videos for Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft

It looks like Greenpeace is pretty serious about the Dirty Cloud campaign.  They have created the following videos and have put banners up at data centers.

Are you willing to be a little wild? Your brain can be 15-30% bigger than domesticated

I am reading an interesting book "Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest Moments."

And one of the points made is

research has found that the brains of domesticated animals are 15 to 30 percent smaller than those of their wild counterparts.

A comment I recently received is I am "loose cannon." Which can be bad if you are in large corporate environment where you want everyone to behave appropriately.  Luckily, I no longer work in a corporate environment, and being a loose cannon is not a bad thing.

Even data center events can be highly domesticated like a zoo where there is a program and routine you are expected to stick to.  Stay on message according to the event's marketing program.  At some events the presentation titles are written by the event staff for the speakers to stay in their cage, containing what they say.

The Touchpoint book continues

So if you want to thrive in a fiercely competitive global environment, you need to stay a little wild. You need to be alert and continuously update your skills. Today's organizations draw on the best talent from all over the world. This means that the standards keep going up, and you need to get better just to stay in place.

An example of being wild is Mike Manos. At last year's Uptiime Symposium Mike had a programmed talk.  And, thanks to some prodding from some data center thought leaders, Mike went a little wild and said what is wrong with so much of the industry is "we act like Donkeys."  Highly domesticated animals with days of gloom like Eeyore.  I don't think anyone who would call Eeyore talented, except to bring down the energy down in the room.

Mike's call to action is to be a Chaos Monkey.  Break things and see what happens.

Afterwards Mike's talk, Mike said he had dozens of people come up to him and admit they were donkeys.  The guy I was sitting next to said he is "chaos monkey." I am too, and it is more fun.

Do you favor being a domesticated donkey?  Most do, because you don't you lose your job in a risk averse culture which is most data center organizations.

Or are you a little wild with a brain that is 15-30% bigger than the domesticated crowd?

The nice thing about a smaller brain is you don't think about being a little wild. You get comfortable in your skin, like Eeyore.