Ha! So, I was kinda slow to write a post on my attendance at Data Center World that just took place in Nashville – and could not find a good picture of the event.

If you’ve ever spent time in Nashville – you know all about Country & Western and Jack Daniels. So, to help grab your attention -> I’ve decided to use a Jack Daniels picture I found!

It actually works well to highlight that just like good computer equipment, a good whiskey also needs to be chilled!

I’m not a whiskey drinker – but you can’t visit Nashville without seeing a 1000 signs for it, nor can you visit Data Center World without thinking of cooling!





• What’s my inlet temp?

• Where are my hot spots?

• How cold in the cold aisle?

• Can I safely increase temp and save money?

• How hot is the return temp?

All good things to be thinking if you happening to have the time to sit and think. Everyone is busy. I get that. Everyone at AFCOM was moving fast through the exhibit areas – anxious to see what might exist in the “latest” and “greatest” of new technologies to help “increase efficiency“, “gain capacity” and “save “money“. But you know what, if you sit back – some of the most challenging problems can be solved with the simplest of tricks – dating back to the basics of air conditioning, air flow management and the laws of physics. Maybe this is why simple things like “Scotch on the Rocks” has survived for so long… It’s just a good thing, done right.

Simple is good. Take some simple steps towards air flow management and temperature visibility and you might be surprised at what you see and what you can quickly fix your your data center environment!

I’ll drink to that!

OK. I have been sitting on this graph in my WordPress account for awhile now. Time to unleash it to the world! I’m not sure if it helps frame the current state of enterprise adoption or if it ties to the new 2012 movie which follows the end of the world! I’m used to Gartner Group hype cycles. I used to follow them for the software infrastructure space, integration, web 2.0 and basically a lot of things. Are they accurate? Well it depends on your definition of accuracy and what established reference point you might want to use. They certainly make for some great discussion points with a customer.

If we dig down on the graph – we see their are 5 phases as best described by my favorite site Wikipedia.

A hype cycle in Gartner’s interpretation comprises five phases:

1. “Technology Trigger” — The first phase of a hype cycle is the “technology trigger” or breakthrough, product launch or other event that generates significant press and interest.
2. “Peak of Inflated Expectations” — In the next phase, a frenzy of publicity typically generates over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations. There may be some successful applications of a technology, but there are typically more failures.
3. “Trough of Disillusionment” — Technologies enter the “trough of disillusionment” because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.
4. “Slope of Enlightenment” — Although the press may have stopped covering the technology, some businesses continue through the “slope of enlightenment” and experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology.
5. “Plateau of Productivity” — A technology reaches the “plateau of productivity” as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations. The final height of the plateau varies according to whether the technology is broadly applicable or benefits only a niche market.

Now that we all have a general understanding of the hype cycle phases – let look at how Gartner applies the hype cycle to the data center space. Here we go…

As you can see, this graph is titled ” Data Center Power and Cooling Technologies” and has a heavy concentration of data points on the first slope of the “technology trigger” phase. We also see that “cooling management” and “power monitoring and management software” occur somewhere at the “peak of inflation” or a little further down the curve. As blue dots – the adoption period to mainstream is 5-10 years for cooling management (Wow! -now that too me seems way to long) and the white dots for monitoring are in the <less than 2 years. This I like.

Why? Gartner is always ahead of the customer. I know this. I have lived this. If, according to this hype cycle, “power monitoring” is <2 years, then enterprises need to be investigating product, building business cases, deploying POC projects and basically starting to embrace this new technology  (I guess I should have used the word solution here… but you know what I mean). Some are. Some aren’t. It takes time and resources to bring something new in, get it deployed and showing value to the various stakeholder groups. In some enterprises this can be a real pain. Again, I know this, I have lived this. But, for those that do, you are tracking very well with the above hype cycle timing. Also – to me it’s like the Fram oil filter commercial – “You can pay me now or pay me later!” Any product that can help save you money – what would you want to wait to start investigating it value for your organization?

The cycle is here. The data center map has been defined. Where are you in adoption and willingness to embrace and accelerate? Not all environments are the same, but the goals of driving energy efficiency should be the same and we all need to get started in some form or fashion.

Is the data center hype cycle like the 2012 Myon calendar?  The death of your data center? Or could it be the creation of a new, green, energy efficient data center that is monitored and saves you real $$$. Don’t wait till December 21st to find out – get started now!

]]> http://puedcie.com/2009/11/12/data-center-hype-cycle-omg/feed/ 1 tjcanning HypeCycleSCALED gatner dc http://puedcie.com/2009/07/29/enjoy-summer/ http://puedcie.com/2009/07/29/enjoy-summer/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:03:07 +0000 tjcanning http://tjcanning.wordpress.com/?p=41 ]]>

ASHRAE. Enjoy Summer.

If you thought your data center was just as cold as San Francisco in the summer, that might just be about to change. ASHRAE, which stands for “The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers” has some new recommendations for all you cost conscious data center folks!

“It’s ok to run a little warmer! I say, it’s ok to run a little warmer!!”

Every data center I have ever been in has been cold, noisy, and pretty much a place to get software installed, hardware plugged in, and then get the heck out of there and have the rest of the meeting where it is warm and quiet. ASHRAE is a game changer and causing lots of interesting articles to pop up all over the place.

So what do you need to know about ASHRAE?

The inlet air temp range has been updated to reflect modern times. From ASHRAE’s 2008 Extended Environment Envelope document Page 1. Here’s the deal:

These recommended conditions as well as the allowable conditions refer to the inlet air entering the datacom equipment. Specifically it lists for data centers in the ASHRAE classes 1 and 2, a recommended environment range of 20 to 25 degrees C and a relative humidity (RH) range of 40-55%

Basically – you don’t need to freeze the data center like an ice cube anymore and you can start to evaluate a higher operating environment. It does not mean you go change all the set points over night and start cooking everything like a Weatherford fired BBQ. Naw.. you need ot be able to understand what effect these neds ranges will have and be able to plan accordingly if you plan to adopt these new recommendations. Things to consider:

• What is my current baseline?
• How can I measure it if I don’t?
• How can I visualize the effects of increased temperature?
• How do I ensure I don’t create hot spots
• How can I adjust/refine set points to optimize?
• Can I associate changes to OpEx expenses and show an ROI?

It’s like a new opportunity is present with ASHRAE to determine and define a new operating environment that your data center can safely operate in, and but reducing the draws on cooling – be able to save money in the process. Makes sense to me. Of course, raising inlet temp, and based on delta T, the idea is not to be cooking the hot aisle beyond control or containment. You still need to be able to have humans survive a trip or perform work  in the data center. ASHRAE does not apply to humans.

Are you a fan of ASHRAE’s new recommendations? Have you taken any action to realize an ROI based on these new ranges?

Tom
Fan of ASHRAE