Comparing Technical Conferences - IBM Impact vs. AFCOM Data Center World

Most of my readers are data center folks who would go to AFCOM Data Center World, Uptime Symposium, DatacenterDynamics, Gartner Data Center Conference and/or 7x24 Exchange.  I’ve gone to all of them as well as Intel Developer Forum, GigaOm Structure, and IBM Pulse.  In prior jobs I used to go to all kinds of Microsoft, Apple conferences, and Seybold Publishing.

Last week I was in Las Vegas when a bunch of other data center people were in town.  I’ve gone to AFCOM data center world and unfortunately, I really don’t learn much as I know plenty of people i could ask about power, mechanical systems, and the presentations really don’t interest me.  I’ve spent so much of my time writing executive presentations whether for Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, or other data center folks that I don’t have the patience to sit in most presentations.  So, looking for options of what to given I was going to LV anyway I found that IBM had a conference called Impact.  I had gone to IBM Pulse 2 years ago, and found it useful.  Last week I spent two days at the IBM conference, and I am going to contrast some of the differences between a conference like IBM Impact vs. AFCOM data center world.

Data Center World is promoted as 

Data Center World

Data Center World is the premier educational conference and Expo for data center and facilities management professionals providing real-world solutions for critical data center infrastructure through comprehensive, vendor-neutral education, peer-to-peer networking and unparalleled access to technology service providers.

…

More than 1,000 data center professionals from 26 countries around the world gathered this week in Las Vegas for Data Center World Spring 2013 at the Mandalay Bay conference center.

IBM Impact

IMPACT 2013 was a success!

More than 8,500 technology and business leaders representing every industry gathered from around the world at Impact 2013. They discussed how to make the best use of technologies such as mobile, social, cloud computing and big data. IBM customers described how they have re-imagined operations, processes, and technology, sharing their stories and expertise.

Data Center World is a 1,000 people focused on the data center building.  IBM Impact has 8,500 people focused on Social, Cloud, Mobile, and Big Data.

It has been a while since I went to DataCenterWorld, but usually there is DataCenterKnowledge covering the event which is owned by iNET Interactive and also owns AFCOM and DataCenterWorld. Media coverage on a Google search showed a few posts.

TEXT100 is the PR company supporting IBM Impact which is the same company that supports Schneider Electric.  There were 30 - 50 media and analysts (quite possibly many more were registered) that I could see at the IBM Impact event.  Media and Analyst there were companies like ZDNET, IDG, Forrester Research.

Many of the media and analyst had access to executives in media presentations which made it easier to drill into more details and ask more questions.  There were also 1-1 meetings for some.

I was able to learn more about IBM’s MessageSight Appliance and PureSystems.  The MessageSight Appliance is a new announcement. Curious I went to Google News to see the coverage.

IBM Crunches Internet Of Things Data

In-Depth

-InformationWeek-Apr 29, 2013

The above was considered by Google News to be in-depth, but this post had no details on the test hardware used by IBM to support the performance numbers.  The software architecture of the system addresses the challenge of how to handle a huge amount of streams that can’t be handled by a typical database, creating the need for an appliance, a server system that can handle millions of devices.I reached out to the folks at Text100 and IBM to get more details on MessageSight Appilance.  There is some cool stuff that IBM put in MessageSight and I hope to discuss details in the future.

Finding something as cool as MessageSight Appilance at AFCOM Data Center World is not really possible.  At some point you may see the MessageSight Appliance show up in your data center, connecting to millions of devices.  But, I don’t know if the MessageSight Appilance is going to look any different than any other IBM System P Series Server which it is built upon.

Three Private Clouds - IBM PureSystems, Redapt Private Cloud, AOL microdatacenter

IBM PureSystems hit the one year anniversary of their launch, and at IBM Impact i heard about PureSystems a lot.  After a few days, I filtered the marketing material to figure out what is the IBM PureSystems.

Then I saw this IBM video on PureSystems by Jason McGee.

This reminded me of what AOL’s Mike Manos has blogged on AOL’s microdatacenters.

Here is just a few of the things required to look at/change/and automate to even make this kind of achievement possible:

• Developing an entirely new Technology Suite and the ability to deliver that capacity anywhere in the world with minimal to no staffing.
• Delivering extremely dense compute capacity (think the latest technology) to give us the longest possible use of these assets once deployed into the field.
• The ability to deliver a “Microdata Center” anywhere on the planet regardless of temperature and humidity settings
• The ability to support/maintain/and administer remotely.
• The ability to fit into the power envelope of a normal office building
• Participation in our cloud environment and capabilities
• The processes by which these facilities are maintained and serviced
• and much much more…

and a third version of a PureSystems approach is Redapt’s Private Cloud.

What is the Redapt Cloud on Citrix CloudPlatform?

The Redapt Cloud is a bundle of tightly integrated infrastructure power by Citrix CloudPlatform.  It delivers a turnkey private or hybrid cloud at lower costs than public cloud providers.

Reasons to Consider the Redapt Cloud

• The Redapt Cloud blends proven reference architectures and our team’s experience to delivery a fully integrated private cloud
• A Redapt Cloud offers network, data, and compute performance that is superior to public cloud offerings.
• Your Redapt Cloud is designed to meet your application workloads and data capacity.  As your needs grow, so can your Redapt Cloud by adding compute and data as required.
• At scale, it is less costly than a public cloud.  Show us your public cloud utilization and we’ll demonstrate how the Redapt Cloud will save your organization real money.
• The Redapt Cloud can offer the data and network security that has been deterring your IT department from utilizing the efficiencies of cloud computing.
• Powered by Citrix CloudPlatform, which is recognized by industry pundits as  the Infrastructure as a Service leader.
• Infrastructure arrives at the data center of your choice ready to deploy.  Realize an operational cloud in as little as 14 days.

Sometimes it is easier to understand something when you see what others have done.  When I look at the IBM PureSystems site it is much easier to visualize what this means.

IBM PureFlex System

PureFlex System is an infrastructure system that provides an integrated computing environment — combining servers, storage, networking, virtualization, and management into a single offering.

This same description can be applied to AOL’s microdatacente and Redapt’s private cloud.

Squarespace API back down again, so need to change my writing style

When you get used to a certain way of creating content, many times there is an overall flow to your work.  Whether you are using Word, Photoshop, or Excel, a person creating content gets used to a way to work.  When your favorite tool is gone, changing can be hard.

Since last Thursday, SquareSpace 5’s API has been down.  This means I can’t publish from MarsEdit or Windows Live Writer to the blog.  I could use the browser posting feature, but I am so used to working in an editor that I can easily cut and paste reference urls, images, or video, it slows me down.  It feels like it is so slow it stops me from writing.

Given it has been 4 days now with the feature down, I am going to change what I write until it is up, and hope the API is fixed soon.

Norland LV Social continues to deliver as the premier data center networking event & 6 ways a Social beats most Conferences

Two years ago I posted on a data center LV social and questioned whether the event would continue with Steve joining Schneider Electric as part of Lee Tech acquisition.

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

MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2011 AT 9:53AM

modifyremoveorganizepost follow up

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)

Well on Tues Steve delivered again on the best social with more people, many new and it is all working better than ever for an event that has people flying in from all over just to attend a party. Steve had a new shirt and the rivalry for who has the coolest shirt continues between Joe (another Data Center Industry Exec) and Steve. Katie was back. And Steve’s wife attended for the first time. Mike Manos was there, which drew a lot of former Mircosoft and AOL Data Center leadership,  Quite a few Chicago based data center professionals that in some cases have worked for both of the Manos brothers. There is a Texas crowd.  And, even a Seattle collection. Three of us were all on the same flight from LAS to SEA on Weds.  Many who attended are well known in the Data Center industry, and are keynoters and speakers at conferences.

Steve has successfully made the transition with sponsorships from Norland, Fieldview Solutions, ESD, and WiredRe.

Before the Manos party, I went to another get together at The Mandalay Bay where almost everyone there was attending AFCOM.  I luckily found the corner next to the air conditioning vent where I was probably the only one who didn’t sweat in a room with too many people.  Hey is there a cooling engineer in the house. :-)  The suite had mostly vendors in there as there were groups of same colored shirts all over and lots of gray hairs.  I have lots of gray too, but I didn’t dress like everyone else and work for myself.  There were a handful of those people who were going to the Manos social, and most for the first time as one proud decked out female bragged “I am all dressed up because I am going to PURE tonight!”  Note: Many of the people attending this DC Social don’t go to AFCOM or Uptime and this is time for them to network with their peers.  Oops, the reason why people say they were in LV was AFCOM, but they were actually in town for Manos’s premier networking event.

At about 8:30p the group starts to collect in the Shadow Bar, you can get an idea of who has made it into town.  It’s kind of a pre-party warm-up.  The real party starts at 10p.  By 12p the weak leave.  By 3p the party moves from the roof to the dance floor.  Then there is gambling, the breakfast, and an exhausted trek to the airport or finally crashing in the hotel.   You wouldn’t think Steve had been up for 24 hours by looking at this picture of him with his wife Cindy.

 

Steve has done a great job of refining and iterating on what works for a good data center social.  

Here are six ways to understand why the social works.  Using Webster’s definition of social, let’s go through the six.

Definition of SOCIAL

1

: involving allies or confederates <the Social War between the Athenians and their allies>

1. The core set of people who have attended for 3 of more of these social events are friends - allies or confederates - who know what it means to work together in this industry.  There are suppliers and consumers of services, but it is not about selling as much as figuring out who you can work with and trust.  One of the new guys at the party was one of my good friends Kevin who needed facility operations expertise and for the past 6 months he has been working with Steve to run his data center facility operations, and he fit right in.

2 a : marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with friends or associates <an active social life>

b : sociable

 

c : of, relating to, or designed for sociability <a social club>

2.  The people attending are sociable and people enjoy interacting with.  It has been interesting to watch some of the big so-called networkers try to attend and they fade out as they really don’t fit into the group.

3: of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society <social institutions>

3. One of the top characteristics that defines whether people get invited and attend 3 or more events is whether they are concerned about the welfare of other people.  Many of these people were close friends of the departed Olivier Sanche who was probably one of the best at being a caring person.  If you are a selfish person, you probably don’t fit in. 

4

a : tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others

 

b : living and breeding in more or less organized communities <social insects>

 

c of a plant : tending to grow in groups or masses so as to form a pure stand

4. Do you work well with others?  Part of what gets compared is who can you work with and who is more difficult.  Simply watching who talks to who is interesting in itself.

5

a : of, relating to, or based on rank or status in a particular society <a member of our social set>

 

b : of, relating to, or characteristic of the upper classes

 

c : formal

5. Formal is not what the social is, but there is a rank.  Not necessarily how much you can brag about your latest container on a roof or chicken coop design, but how well are you networked into the attendees.  It was funny getting introduced to the well networked by first timers.  I think I got introduced to Sean 5 times by various people.  Sean and I would play along and pretend we met for the first time, getting a good laugh.  Shows how important Sean is.  :-)

6: being such in social situations <a social drinker>

 6. Being a social there is drinking.  

In 1 1/2 weeks it is my turn to host the Data Center Downtime Social in Santa Clara, where I get to see many of the same people I saw in LV, and there are many who couldn’t make it out to LV.  Most of the people who go to the downtime social event don’t go to data center conferences.  Which brings up an interesting side effect on Data Center Socials.  Data Center Conferences are marketed as the place the customers go for expertise.  But, if you are an expert who tells the vendors what to do, then the conferences are kind of irrelevant, because many of the presentations are from the vendors.  Note: many of the data center social attendees are the ones who are in demand for keynote speakers.

One of the first rules we had tried for who goes to the data center downtime social is if you are a vendor you are not invited.  But, one of the smartest nicest guys I know who really can run data centers works for a vendor.  Ahh,  how about if you are a thought leader is the criteria for whether we invite you or not.  Who you work for is not important.  Part of the reason why this concept is working is it is about the people and their social skills, not about the companies.  If you look at Webster’s definition of social, being social has nothing to do with what company you work for.

Thinking different about an education, then work

I really enjoy learning.  And thinking about how to think.  For college I went to UC Berkeley to study Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.  35 years ago i started my education there and some of the silly things I did still stick with me.

One of the things I did is if I didn’t think the class was worthwhile even though it was a requirement, I didn’t put much effort into it and didn’t’ really care about the grade.  One of there classes I think i got a B in.  Then I figured out for some of these classes I could go to the Junior College at home during the summer get whatever grades, then transfer the credits without the grades.  

On the other hand there was Differential Calculus that I really liked.

In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus concerned with the study of the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus.

The primary objects of study in differential calculus are the derivative of a function, related notions such as the differential, and their applications. The derivative of a function at a chosen input value describes the rate of change of the function near that input value. The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. Geometrically, the derivative at a point equals the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. For a real-valued function of a single real variable, the derivative of a function at a point generally determines the best linear approximation to the function at that point.

Differential Calculus i got an A+ in and was in the Zone.  I don’t even know how I could do the math, but it just all worked.  And, I think that part of what I really loved was the way it can be used to describe the real world.

There was an electrical engineering course I could take as an elective, but I knew my hopes of getting an A were low given I would be competing against students who were planning on being electrical engineers and they would be amongst the people who already got an A in the prerequisite Physics course that focused on electricity and magnetic forces.

Physics for Scientists and Engineers. (4)   Three hours of lecture and four hours of laboratory/workshop per week. Prerequisites: 7A, Math 1A-1B, Math 53 (may be taken concurrently). Heat, electricity, and magnetism.

 So I took the Electrical Engineer class first that had the Physics class as a requirement, got a B+, then took the Physics class after for electricity and magnetism and got an A.

Lesson, sometimes it is better to do things in a different order than everyone else.

What has this got to do with me now?  I worked for a company when i thought it was worthwhile.  My order of past employment was HP, Apple, and Microsoft.  If a company isn’t worthwhile for me to learn, then I leave.  Same applies to clients I work with.  It’s not about the money, it is about whether I am learning.  And, many times it is better to take a different order to get things done than others.

I’ll be 53 next month, and I am still learning which I think keeps me younger than I am.  Although the gray hair is really making it harder to look like I am 35.  I figured I’ve got a good 20 more years of learning before I may want to retire.  10 years ago when I hit 43 I thought about what it would be like to retire.  Working for 11 years at Microsoft in 2003 had treated me well financially, but retirement is not the goal.  Learning is my goal.

And, part of what I always liked is hanging out with really smart people.  What is a really smart person to me?  A person who knows how to ask a really hard question.  What type of question?  My latest is how to do product lifecycle management in the data center.  I’ve been thinking about this one for 2 years, and almost have it solved.  The nice thing the way the problem is solved it is not just data centers.  It is how do you do product lifecycle management in a social, mobile, and cloud approach.  Hint: the different way i am using is an Epistemology approach.

Knowledge -> Epistemology -> Information Infrastructure

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012 AT 5:28PM

My wife has said I like to think about thinking.  And, recently at a girl’s get away during charades one of the hints was a person spending a lot of time thinking, and then typing.  Thinking more, then typing.  And, they guessed Dave Ohara. :-)  So, outside of work even in social neighbor time, I have the reputation of thinking a lot and writing a lot.

One of the interesting problems I have been working on is what can change the data center industry.  Information architectures is what I have been study lately.

Then yesterday, I saw a talk by John Leslie King Titled - Knowledge Infrastructure: Mechanism and Transformation in the Information.  One of the slides that got my attention was this one.

The role of the Academy in a systematic collecting of information for a crowd-sourced knowledge.

A great point was the knowledge in a perspective of reason for existence, and how what’s obvious leads to thinking what’s hidden.

The other big concept John discussed was Epistemology.

Epistemology ⁱ/ɨˌpɪstɨˈmɒlədʒi/ (from Greek ἐπιστήμη (epistēmē), meaning “knowledge, science”, and λόγος(logos), meaning “study of”) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.^[1][2] It addresses the questions:

• What is knowledge?
• How is knowledge acquired?
• To what extent is it possible for a given subject or entity to be known?