Tagged: Energy Efficiency RSS

  • tjcanning 6:17 pm on February 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Energy Efficiency, , , ,   

    What is Sustainability? 

    I keep hearing about sustainability – so I just had to pony up $200 bucks and hit the San Jose Value-Based Sustainability event the other week. It was put on by the folks at Executive Council. Mind you – I am not a fan of any event that starts at 8:00 in San Jose – 101 or 280 at that time is not what I would classify as a “value-add ride” – but I did manage to get there in time to catch some key presentations. Who was there?  It was the heavy hitters of the fortune world – companies such as PG&E, Autodesk, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Coca-Cola, UPS, 1E, Verdiem, EnerNOC, and Stirling Energy.

    What is Sustainability? If you are a Googler like me – the first place you go today is to Wikipedia for education. The Wikipedia folks will tells you that:

    Sustainable business, or green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

    1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.[1]

    2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replaces demand for nongreen products and/or services.[1]

    3. It is greener than traditional competition.[1]

    4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.[1]

    Ok cool. I am down with that. This was the theme that was echoed at this event. I did find some posting quotes from the event on a cool site called Conference Bites. Let me share a few:

    “Metrics are still the holy grail in this (sustainability) space.”
    ~ Libby Reder, Head of Environmental Initiatives, eBay

    “We…need to get value by extracting it out of information, rather than out of the ground.”
    ~ Kathrin Winkler, VP of Sustainability, EMC

    I had a chance to briefly chat with Libby and Kathrin – it’s always refreshing to meet folks who are leaders in their respective spaces and who are also real and fun to chat with.

    The event was co-hosted by UPS – Bob Stoffel did a really nice job of sharing what sustainability really means within UPS – and as a long time UPS shipper – there is a large supply chain that must operate efficiently to keep those brown trucks rolling!

    How did I celebrate the mid morning event break – nothing better than a nice cold Coke!  Bryan Jacobs from Coca Cola (a fellow engineer I might add too) shared his thoughts on sustainability and of course over the course of the event -  I had to support his views by having multiple cokes on ice!

    There was a strong take away that I had from this event – and it was embedded in both Libby’s and Kathrin’s quotes. What was it? It was the word “Metrics”. If you want to do anything in the enterprise these days – you absolutely need to associate a metric with it. A metric tell you if you are wining, failing or somewhere in between when it comes to delivering on an initiative. It separates reality from vision. It separates execution from planning. I am going to start to hone in on metrics in the next couple of blog posts.

    A metric is only a number… so why is everyone is scared of them?

     

  • tjcanning 3:44 pm on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Energy Efficiency, ,   

    Data Center Hype Cycle. Where are you? 

    HypeCycleSCALED

    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!

     

  • tjcanning 12:59 am on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Energy Efficiency, ,   

    SVLG Data Center Energy Summit – I was there! 

    svlgEverybody like a party right? Well I had the chance to attend the past SVLG event in Silicon Valley (where else?) hosted at the rocking NetApp campus. Nice digs! Super presenters and crowd.

    It was the Data Center Energy Summit and every seat in the room was taken and folks were even standing just to hear the “secret energy efficiency sauce” being shared!

    So how do you make sure everyone gets your message and knows who you are at an event like this? Esy – You go to BestBuy and purchase a massive 42″ LCD and have 12 Powerpoint slides that rotate very 5 seconds with simple messaging!

    You then make sure you are front stage of the event and just below a jumbo presentation screen. Wow – if you check my little picture with the red circle highlighted- I guess that is exactly what happened to me! Kinda like “The Perfect Storm” except everyone survives and comes home a hero!

    SVLG and NetApp did a bang up job for the event. Class act. Thanks everyone!

     

  • tjcanning 2:57 pm on October 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Energy Efficiency   

    Hydroelectricty: Dam it! 

    dam

    Just saw a posting that Aditi Justin wrote on VMware’s new data center. I know this is a second posting on Vmware, and even though it crashes on my mac at times, I am going to give them a second kudo’s and highlight this cool announcement. I grew up near a hydroelectric dam – so maybe it was the pic that really caught my eye.

    VMware, the global leader in virtualization solutions, announced the opening of a new green IT datacenter yesterday. Located in East Wenatchee, Washington, the new center will be developed using cutting-edge technology with special attention on maximizing the use of VMware virtualization software. The company is looking forward to attain an ambitions PUE figure and has entered the facility for a LEED Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council.

    The new data center is solely powered by hydroelectric energy and maximizes use of airside economization or free cooling. A hot- and cold-aisle containment is included in the design so that the air-handling equipment at the facility can be further optimized. It is estimated that expects airside economizers will bring down the air-conditioning usage by 50-75 percent. The company’s projects, which reduce the power consumption due to shorter air-compressor runtimes, will save $500,000 annually.

    Very cool. Very hip.

     

  • tjcanning 9:16 am on September 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Energy Efficiency,   

    Dear Data Center, The MAN is Coming! 

    This blog is going heavy metal today! Warning: Stop reading now if you are not a metal fan! I have to post this as I thought it just fit so well. Let me explain…

    I had just finished reading a Mike Manos post on the fact the ‘MAN’ is coming…

    “Data center managers might not understand that once the legislation passes, in whichever form, they’ll be a significant contributor to carbon emissions and will fall under reporting requirements,” says Mike Manos, senior vice president of technical services at Digital Realty Trust, “I don’t think many data center managers see that coming or are aware of that.”

    Excellent post Mike! I see this an accelerator for data center optimization and the need for Facilities and IT to take action. Right? So just after reading this – I ended up going for a quick run to burn off some steam. I load my ipod shuffle from about 50gb of euro rock metal house music to help me run.. Low and behold – a 1996 Motorhead tune called “Broken” comes on and as I listen to the lyrics – it’s like a perfect match to the thoughts I have on Mike’s post! Check this out:

    You don’t know the trouble you’re in
    Linvin’ in paradise, livin’ in sin
    You better watch out baby one of these days
    Another man coming gonna change your ways

    Broken, broken truth must be spoken
    Can we be responsible, is someone keeping score
    Broken, broken when all guns are smoking
    Do you want to die then, according to the law
    Sunshine, moonshine, fire & flood
    Death come hungry to your neighbourhood
    You better watch out baby, one of these nights
    Somebody coming to shoot out your lights

    You can google the rest of the words but they really ring true to how most data centers are running today. Broken! Everyone is living in paradise without a care in the world for efficiency because no one is watching the hen house! Well this living in sin might come to an end if the Waxman-Markey energy cap-and-trade bill passes! Why?

    “But when these initiatives pass, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’re not structured for reporting or efficiency because facilities doesn’t get what you can do from a technology point to optimize the data center, and the data center managers don’t see power bills to understand where they’ll have to go to meet their energy use targets,” he adds.

    Wow! This sounds like a SOX compliance/governance wave all over again!  I love regulations. It makes customers take action and it allow vendors to solve problems and make customer happy. Its a win-win!

    Now that is music to my ears!

     

  • tjcanning 1:28 am on August 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Energy Efficiency, ,   

    Data Center Efficiency: Facilities Wins! 

    poll

    The results are in and Facilities won! Congratulations!

    So here is the deal – if you are going into the Green IT space, specifically data center, it appears that Facilities and following the almighty dollar (Hello Mr. CFO in 2nd place) is the place to focus. My little twtpoll experiment – using the notion of crowd-sourcing and seeking the wisdom of the audience – would lead us to believe that Facilities at 41% and the CFO at 27% are the folks that really care about energy efficiency in the data center. Do you agree? Do I agree?

    Well, I have  to say that over the past few weeks I’ve been reaching out to folks, at different levels and across different types of organizations. Hey – maybe you’re reading this and you gotten a vm from me! Ha – gotta love pure 100% cold calling! Ask me if I like pain? Well – it’s not that tough when you remember that:

    Hey – this is my planet too! So if you guys want to waste energy – then I got an issue and you need to hear me out!

    Back to the poll… Greening the data center is definitely new for some folks. And for some – new things represent a big challenge. I had an interesting conversation the other day with a energy expert at a big organization (sorry – I don’t drop names) and he was quick to validate the diferent “rate of change” that IT and Facilities live in. If you’re in IT – it’s all about server refresh, get faster stuff, make stuff smaller, add more blinking lights to stuff and basically everyone lives and embraces “change”. It’s like a hit of acid. Compare that to Facilities and it’s like “what really changes there?” Not so much right? It’s not like I want to rip and replace CRAH’s every 6 months, I can’t virtualize jack so I’m missing that fun, my chiller just makes alot of noise and weighs 8 tons – so I ain’t touching that! So, it’s a change and a challenge to all of a sudden drop this whole “Green Data Center” on the lap of Facilities and expect that everyone is willing to embrace the notion and action it immediately in their environment. The folks that can and do – Hats off! The folks that haven’t quite engaged – maybe experiment with small steps?  Based on the poll – we know you care!

    Question – what happened to IT in this poll? 1 lousy vote?  Comments please!

     

  • tjcanning 9:32 am on August 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: American Data Center, , Energy Efficiency, ,   

    The American Data Center Contest! 

    contestIf you think you’ve got the right stuff – then I am extending an open invitation to participate in this season’s “American Data Center” contest! I’m sure everyone is familiar with American Idol, so in a similar fashion, I am looking for the most wannabe energy conscious enterprise data center to step forward and take stage!

    Call me crazy, but let me describe the contest. I don’t think anything like this has ever done before, but then again, if you told me 5 years ago I would be tweeting 140 characters – I would of called you crazy!

    Contest Details:

    • Goal: Find the best candidate enterprise data center and team for a real world energy usage pilot
    • The Rules: You need to be serious about saving energy and have a enterprise data center that could use some efficiency gains
    • The Challenge: Be willing to instrument your data center and collect power and cooling data with non-invasive sensors
    • My Commitment: I’ll invest the time, instrumentation, and energy savings expertise to make you a corporate rock star!
    • Your Commitment: Your time, data center and current energy challenges. Maybe ASHRAE has you thinking?
    • The Fear: You are going to measure real power, cooling and gain visibility into your data center environment. Measurement creates fear in some people. It’s like stage fright. You’ll need to overcome this initial fear and be adventuresome. You also need to like math – since we’re going to be doing some calculations!
    • The Reward: Visibility and real data that you can action and use to increase your power efficiency. That means “YOU WILL SAVE MONEY!!!”
    • Sign Up: Contact me on Linkedin or send an email to discuss further. (both are listed in the top RHS of my blog too)

    Super Stars Only!

    If you are real serious and have the interest, then I’d like to explore adding a twist of social media to this contest. I do understand enterprise constraints concerning PID’s, NDA’s etc – but if you could share some basic findings or general best practices – this would be helpful to others. Enterprises need good examples and stories to sell upper management. As an example, imagine a YouTube channel that hosts a weekly 1-2 minute video on what we are doing, experiencing and learning. Nothing complicated, raw format that just shares our adventure. Remember – this is about something good – saving energy and letting others know that there are things they can do in their data center. Good PR and good corporate thought leadership is what I am talking about!

    Btw…the interaction and relationship between customer/vendor is changing. If you follow Social Media, Enterprise 2.0 or Sales 2.0 – collaboration and transparency are the new trends to adopt. This contest represents a step in that direction and I hope you appreciate my approach in looking for a great data center candidate to work with.

    Reach me directly to discuss further!

     

  • tjcanning 5:21 pm on August 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Energy Efficiency,   

    dilbert

    The Lighter Side of Data Center Cooling…

    This is classic. If Dilbert is writing about data center cooling and the melting down of data centers – then I hope a lot of folks start to understand the seriousness of saving energy in their data centers! Data Center efficiency should be fun. Get started making a change!

     

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