Bored of Data Center Presentations? Me too, so do something about it

It was fun catching up with Chris Crosby in LV and Santa Clara over the past couple of weeks.  Chris just posted on the issue of wishing upon a star for maybe these data center conferences would be more interesting.

In doing a quick review of some of the topical fodder that will be discussed at some of the data center industry’s upcoming confabs, I have to say that it looks like we’re stuck in a bit of a rut. Does an over abundance of Power Points expounding on the how it’s “DCiM’s time” and that the Cloud “will change everything” reflect some hidden industry wish that these things will come true? Should we cue Jiminy Cricket?

Chris closes imploring the event staff to change the formats.

While there is little that we can do about the topic’s that speakers will be covering this tradeshow season, I would ask—and I don’t think I’m alone here—that the companies that put on these extravaganzas endeavor to broaden the scope of topics before they implore us to “Join Them” in the one of the nation’s metropolis’s in the future. If I see one more product pitch presentation delivered by someone with the charisma of a newt, I may just lose my lunch. Get out on a limb and say something new. As for DCiM and the Cloud I say look to that Walt Disney classic, Pinnochio, for guidance. After all, after being turned into a donkey and being swallowed by a whale, his wish to become a real boy came true.

But, getting people to change is one of the hardest things in life.  Much harder than greening a data center and coming up with new ways to change the industry for a new performance per watt approach.  

So instead of asking for change, change yourself.  About two years ago I stopped going to AFCOM Data Center World and Uptime Symposium as media and started trying other conferences.  I started going to GigaOm Structure as a media attendee and thanks to Barton George he introduced me to Stacey Higginbotham as GigaOm needed a data center analyst.  So, I spend time (less than 20%)  as an analyst for GigaOm Pro as well as a bunch of other things (the other 80%).

In a month at GigaOm Structure I'll be moderating two panel discussions. 

One with following title and presenters

Compute everywhere: the architects behind the change

Chandra Pandey, Vice President, Platform Solutions, BTI Systems

Lane Patterson, CTO, Equinix

And the other

How infrastructure can transform business success

Cynthi Stoddard, SVP & CIO, NetApp

David Giambruno, SVP and CIO, Revlon

I could try to interject something like the above into a typical data center conference, but it is a lot of work.  The above people are presenting because of the GigaOm brand and its audience.  Also, I'll most likely be jumping into a mode of business value of IT, not data center infrastructure.

The data center infrastructure is important and many of the changes going forward are how the data center infrastructure supports business innovation which is what CIO's care about.  It will be interesting whether data center conferences can change to more than a DCIM and Cloud discussion.

I'll be at GigaOm Structure given I work for the GigaOm folks and am a speaker.  Here are some of the interesting sponsors that work in the data center industry.

 

And Open Compute Project will participate.

Facebook and the Open Compute Project are hosting their second hardware hackathon with the winners presenting at GigaOM’s Structure conference on June 19. So start thinking about your idea, and go register.

If you want to hear a different discussion of the cloud you may want to trying something different for a change, or you can keep on going to the same conferences and hope they get more interesting.

What our attendees are saying

 

• Structure has always been, and continues to be, the place with the most vibrant and provocative cloud discussion. I’ve tracked cloud for a long time and still find Structure to be an essential meeting in order to keep up.

  - Peter Christy

  Co-Founder, Internet Research Group

   

  Structure is a ‘multi-phasic examination’ report on Cloud. In two days, one gets a reading on the state of the technology, the commercial aspects, and the ability to engage in conversation with the people most influential in its evolution.

  -Rich Miller

  CEO, Telematica

   

   
• Structure has always been, and continues to be, the place with the most vibrant and provocative cloud discussion. I’ve tracked cloud for a long time and still find Structure to be an essential meeting in order to keep up.

  - Peter Christy

  Co-Founder, Internet Research Group

   

  Structure is a ‘multi-phasic examination’ report on Cloud. In two days, one gets a reading on the state of the technology, the commercial aspects, and the ability to engage in conversation with the people most influential in its evolution.

  -Rich Miller

  CEO, Telematica

   

   
• Structure has always been, and continues to be, the place with the most vibrant and provocative cloud discussion. I’ve tracked cloud for a long time and still find Structure to be an essential meeting in order to keep up.

  - Peter Christy

  Co-Founder, Internet Research Group

   

  Structure is a ‘multi-phasic examination’ report on Cloud. In two days, one gets a reading on the state of the technology, the commercial aspects, and the ability to engage in conversation with the people most influential in its evolution.

  -Rich Miller

  CEO, Telematica

Looking at a Double Rainbow, colors are inverted

I've been traveling a lot and about to start another burst.

The nice thing come home is the view.  Here is one of a double rainbow.

One interesting fact of a double rainbow is the color are inverted.

While a primary rainbow is visible when light is reflected once off the back of a raindrop, a secondary and usually dimmer rainbow is spotted when light is reflected twice in a more complicated pattern.

The colors of the second rainbow are inverted, with blue on the outside and red moved to the inside. The second bow appears dimmer or cloudier because much more light is released from two reflections, and both bows cover a larger portion of the sky.

Zooming into the above picture you can see the colors are inverted.

Realty vs. Myth, 5 manuscript versions of Gettysburg Address

Being an engineer, I enjoyed Math, Physics, Chemistry, and many other sciences.  Studying Accounting and Finance was a close third to Math and Science.  These were exact things to understand.  When I was 14 I was working part-time after school, and it didn't work out as I wasn't fitting in.  Losing the job didn't really bother me which bothered my mom more than it did me.  What I think the event did do is get me into studying psychology, philosophy, reading Jung, Freud, and Zen Buddhism.  People's perceptions shape their realty.

Here is an example of perception.  I was curios to read the exact words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address.  We all take "four score and seven years ago…" as a truth.  But, guess what there are five different manuscripts of Abraham Lincoln's speech and each has its different place in history.

Despite the speech's prominent place in the history and popular culture of the United States, the exact wording and location of the speech are disputed. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech.

Here are references to the 5 different manuscripts.

^a The Gettysburg Address: Nicolay copy. The Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2010-09-15.^b The Gettysburg Address: Hay copy. The Library of Congress. Retrieved on 2010-09-15.^c Everett copy (jpg). virtualgettsyburg.com. Retrieved from internet archive 2007-06-14 version on 2007-12-10.^d Bancroft copy cover letter (pic), Bancroft copy, page 1 (pic), page 2 (pic). Cornell University Library. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.^e Bliss copy, page 1 (jpg), page 2 (jpg), page 3 (jpg). Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.

One of the lessons learned is the perception (of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) is stronger than the reality (5 different manuscripts).

How many of these perception issues exist in the data center that the mass majority believe is true, but actually there is little data to support the perceived truth.

If you want to make it worse, there are some who benefit from distortion of perception as they create a reality that benefits their agenda.

Some of the smartest people know how to question common accepted truths as they ask for the data.

And sometimes those who speak less say more.

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was the second speaker on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Lincoln was preceded on the podium by the famed orator Edward Everett, who spoke to the crowd for two hours. Lincoln followed with his now immortal Gettysburg Address. On November 20, Everett wrote to Lincoln: “Permit me also to express my great admiration of the thoughts expressed by you, with such eloquent simplicity & appropriateness, at the consecration of the Cemetery. I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

273 Words to a New America (2:59 min)

Curator: Dr. John R. Sellers 
Week of: September 23, 2009

The Data Center World is getting smaller as it grows

One of my favorite books in high school was "Small is Beautiful."

Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr.^[1] It is often used to champion small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people more, in contrast with phrases such as "bigger is better".

After two weeks of being in LV and then SJ hanging around data center people having interesting discussions it struck me how small the data center world is.  Yet it is growing.

With Social Networking and the bigger getting bigger, there is a small set of people who are driving the industry forward.  Yet, there is an increasing set of people who demand data center services including IT organizations who don't understand how the small data center world works.

I think part of the problem for an newbie to data centers is to filter through the marketing and sales positioning to get the core of how the data center works.  The marketing folks are not taking an approach that "Small is Beautiful" and it is about taking small steps in technology to empower people to design, build, and operate data centers better than the past.

The small is beautiful approach is an interesting one, that needs to be studied more.

Do you know me if you read my blog?

I was at IBM's Impact conference in a smart fire side chat type of format with a bunch of media folks and an IBM VP.  We went around the room and introduced ourselves.  The IBM executive and I shook hands and then he said "I know you."  I quickly went through my memory trying to figure out where I had met the executive.  Sometimes the brain doesn't work the way it used and I couldn't figure out where we had met.  Then he said, "I read your blog." My first reaction was reading my blog doesn't mean you know me.  I've shared this story with a few and had a few laughs.  Then one of the my data center friends said well given the way you write and share your thoughts beyond the data center industry, people do feel like they know you.

After a few days in LV last week and a few days in Santa Clara catching up with friends and making new ones. I do think people know me through this blog.

This past week I hosted 30 - 40 people in a brew pub.  Went to a small dinner party that I helped reach out to some thought leaders who were in town to attend.  Last week was in LV was another pub social, dinner with IBM execs, and a 100 person party at PURE nightclub.  So kind of socially burnt out.  I have two days of rest before we host 50 people at our house for a going away party.  Only one guy going does any work in the data center industry that I know of, although there are a few real estate people who have done some data center work.  I think I'll take some pictures with my Canon 6D and post some.  I am surprised how photography does show up in some of the conversation I have on the road.

Part of what got me writing in the style to share more than data center stuff is when Olivier Sanche and I would jump into conversations and I would mention blog posts.  He cut me off and said I read everything you post, so let's just reference various ideas you have discussed and I'll tell you if I agree or disagree.  It's kind of like we were having linked cross referenced discussions with footnotes of relevant ideas.  It really tests my memory to remember what I posted on.  Sometimes I need to look at the daily e-mail posting from the site to remember what I posted on.  :-)  And, my local friends read my stuff more than my wife does and will send he posts to her with their comments.  In fact, I think the readers of my blog have a better idea of where I am going next than my wife does.  Next week is North Carolina,  then 7x24 Boca, then GigaOm Structure in SF.

Thanks for visiting this blog.  And, I guess people do know me through what I post.

-Dave Ohara