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Super Bowl fever is all over Seattle. All the kids are ready for spirit day to show their Hawk Gear.
A viral video is popular too.
We have a bit of family rivalry. My Brother’s family is Denver and my nephews have Seahawks shirts in Denver. And my son has a Manning Broncos shirt.
Here are my brother’s dogs with their Bronco gear.
I am about to get on a plane going home. There were a bunch of my data center friends who I was hoping to see this trip, but many were too busy to make time to get to the Open Compute Summit. Starting the week, I texted one friend who I expected to be NC, but was in the bay area. Let’s have a beer. “I am too busy” ok. Then at Open Compute I heard another data center friend is flying in from Texas. Send a text "you here?” No, but I will be tomorrow. “let’s have a beer.” sign me up. Ping another friend who makes the commute from Seattle to SJC on a regular basis. “you here?” I get on a plane today I’ll be there tonight. Awesome now have 5 of us who haven’t connected.
Next day, think of another friend who might not be traveling. He can come and he is bringing another friend from Seattle. Texas friend shows up with a fellow data center guy.
Total we had nine of some of the smartest guys in the data center industry. People who don’t necessarily get on stage. The guys who do the work and know what is the B.S. and marketing hype.
What comes to mind is “Old Guys Rule"
A badge of honor.
There comes a time in your life when comfort meets substance. When all your hard work seems to have paid dividends, and the world is at your command. All the things you hoped you could do someday, you're doing. The toils of youth are now your experiences... no longer the student, but the teacher.
To celebrate your accomplishments we offer up "Old Guys Rule" to be worn as a badge of honor for a life well spent, but not nearly over...
These are great words to describe the guys. People who have worked hard and the dividends are paying off as they rise in responsibility.
Can you think of a data center friend who belongs to the “Old Guys Rule” club? Take the time to try and get together. Data Center friends who have perspective is invaluable.
There are dozens of teams working in a data center. From the facilities group to the hardware deployment to the application operations and in-between there is no shortage of databases with information. The promise of DCIM is a data center information management solution. The question I ask is how does this work?
Schneider Electric announced a partnership with HP on DCIM.
Schneider Electric Offers Comprehensive Data Center Infrastructure and IT Management Platform Through Collaboration with HP
WEST KINGSTON, R.I. January 23, 2014 – Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, today announced collaboration with HP to deliver a comprehensive, converged data center and IT management platform. This platform will provide consistent views for both the facilities and IT professionals within any organization resulting in increased collaboration and efficiency. The joint solution will feature HP Converged Management Consulting Services (CMCS) combined with Schneider Electric’s Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solution, StruxureWare™ for Data Centers. Schneider Electric and HP are uniquely positioned to offer customers the ability to link physical infrastructure assets to business processes for improved holistic business impact analysis.
“By collaborating with HP to provide a holistic approach to managing IT business process assets and workloads, we are continuing to bridge the gap between IT and facilities,” says Soeren Jensen, vice president, Enterprise Management and Software, Schneider Electric. “Enabling IT service providers to instantly view the impact of any changes in their data center, as well as the operational costs associated with these changes is an important step towards improving energy efficiency in data centers and IT.”
The how is by using a CMDB as the one source of the truth and the place to reconcile information from the different sources.
Schneider Electric and HP will integrate StruxureWare for Data Centers with HP’s Universal Configuration Management Database (UCMDB) which will enable communication and reconcile asset data between the solutions platforms for DCIM and IT Service Management (ITSM). Also, HP will map the functions and features of StruxureWare for Data Centers into HP’s proprietary Converged Management Consulting Framework. This mapping will allow consultants to make informed recommendations around deployment of the solution into customer’s data centers and determine the best way to integrate the overall ITSM and DCIM systems within the environment.
The approach of using a CMDB as the integration point of DCIM information with ITSM is sound and an option that can work. When you look at other DCIM solutions ask how will you store and reconcile the information from IT and Facilities? If they say in the CMDB that would work. If they say they can store the information in a Big Data environment with a NOSQL key value pair approach that could work as well. Most would go down the path of a traditional DB. I would choose ...
Facebook’s Tom Furlong announced that Facebook is using CA’s DCIM solution.
CA Technologies Works with Facebook to Help Drive Efficiencies and Reliability in Its Global Data Centers
CA Innovation Helps Provide Power Improvements in One of the Most Demanding IT Environments in the World
SAN JOSE, CA, January 28, 2014 – CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) announced today that Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is using CA DCIM (CA Data Center Infrastructure Management) software to bring together millions of energy-related data points from physical and IT resources in its global data centers to improve power efficiency.
Facebook conducted an intensive DCIM vendor review process. CA was one of a dozen considered and completed a proof-of-concept, followed by a more extensive pilot in a 100,000-square-foot data center. Upon completion of the pilot, Facebook worked with CA to create a custom solution to deliver on the energy-related DCIM requirements today and in the future, in terms of technology innovation and CA’s ability to execute with speed and scalability, as well as working together to adjust and fine-tune associated business objectives.
“We are on a mission to help connect the world, and our IT infrastructure is core to our success,” said Tom Furlong, VP, Infrastructure Data Centers, Facebook. “We are continually looking at ways to optimize our data centers and bringing all of our energy-related information together in one spot was a core requirement.
Facebook is in top 10 of data center footprints out there, and with it comes a big budget and high visibility for those who are its suppliers. This means there is a good chance Facebook is going to get high value from its use of CA DCIM.
One question to ask is whether you will benefit from Facebook’s use of DCIM? Do you run your operations similar to Facebook? The answer is almost universally NO. So what is the benefit of Facebook using CA DCIM to you? Does it prove CA DCIM can scale and perform? Maybe, do you know the hardware required to run CA DCIM? No. Will you? Most likely not.
The list of companies who can provide a DCIM solution that scales to Facebook’s need is short.
What would be interesting to know is what other DCIM companies Facebook thought it would use and how they compared to CA DCIM.
I just spent 4 days in the bay area and ready to head home to Seattle, specifically in Redmond. 22 Years ago I left my home is Los Gatos, working in Cupertino for Apple to move to Redmond to work for Microsoft. I didn’t know anyone in Seattle or Microsoft in 1992, and figured I would give it a try worse case I move. There are three reasons why I moved - real estate prices, traffic and state income tax. None of that has really changed.
I do come down to the bay area often though as there many companies I chat with, conferences to attend, and to see family and friends.
Chatting with one of my friends who makes the commute from Seattle to the bay area for work last night got me thinking to write this post. One observation is the number of people who commute in to their job an hour or more reminded us of the commutes for NYC. Yet, working in silicon valley doesn’t carry the cachet that NYC does, and being in downtown NYC has many more benefits than being in downtown Mountain View.
I have friends who have lived in the bay area and just rent due to the crazy house prices and their long term plans are to move somewhere else.
Many of the people who commute to silicon valley have chosen to live somewhere else they want to be longer term. Many people who were lucky enough to buy real estate long ago can live closer to work, but the recent hires have a much more difficult time when buyers are paying cash for homes costing over $2 mil.
All of this has an affect on the talent Silicon Valley can attract. At some point there will be a transition to ????
