Its time to step up my blog game and start shooting videos! Hope you like this one – it is green screen video, post production by Final Cut/LiveType, shot using a Canon A1S HD camera and about 5k wattage of pro lighting. Sorry – it’s hard to be energy efficient using 5k of light – but that’s what it takes to produce this stuff!

It’s a generic wireless video – in that I hope to get the minds of IT and Facilities folks thinking about WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) technology and how the application of such technology can help green their enterprise data center. Remember – for technology to have value – it must solve a problem. The current problem, as I see it today in older data centers, is the clear lack of power and thermal visibility – which just plainly drives major inefficiencies and cooling over-kills.  Solve this problem – and you can save major money and tighten your green belt a notch.

Rather than write a long blog post – just watch the video please!

Making a video like this has been fun. I’ve still yet to develop my camera personality – at times I am looking a little too serious perhaps. But, over time I hope to loosen up and have some fun and expression to help flow the timeline out a bit more and make it more natural. It’s ain’t easy – but I’ll be working on it!

Get Ready for the SVLG Energy Party of the year!!!

Looking forward to this event – both to see folks that I’ve met during the last year as well as some of the new shakers and movers in the energy game. SVLG IMHO brings in the best of the best (heck I’m going to it right?)  so this is definitely an event to bring your A-game to. I was so excited to publish this post that I even high-lightened the title in green!

I’ll be in full force at this event. I’m very curious to compare the event velocity to the previous SVLG Energy Summit I was at – and see what trends or patterns are becoming more pronounced in the vendor solutions and customers use case descriptions. There is no better market indicator that customer use cases and stories to figure out what is really happening – or is going to happen.

I’ll post an update of the event, and maybe even some video footage if I can work it.

See you there hopefully!

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!

The goals of the program are to give organizations a greater incentive to improve the energy efficiency of their data centers, and to give them a way to track the results of efficiency initiatives over time, said Alexandra Sullivan, an EPA program engineer who described the effort at a recent green IT conference.

Data centers that participate in the EPA program will use an online tool that ranks their efficiency on a scale of 1 to 100. Those that score 75 or higher can request an audit from the EPA, which awards qualified organizations the Energy Star certification.

If you are an Enterprise IT or Facilities person – is this a kiss of death? I mean – is another “thing” that you will now have to deal with? Maybe you’ve just got PUE figured out, either by manually doing some readings or a little sub-metering and/or wireless-networked sense points and you thought all was good. Nope – it’s time for a new thing that will require you to use an “on-line” tool to determine you’re ranking and then if you hit the magical 75 – you can request an audit! So – are you the kind of person who likes to request “audits”? I can’t remember the last time I requested an IRS audit – and somehow this seems just as painful.

Let’s hope not. I mean the real deal here is to help folks benchmark their data centers – gather a level of visibility around usage/cost/efficiency and in the end reduce energy consumption, increase existing capacity while maintaining or increasing service reliability. Right?

So I hope this process will be friction-less for the data center early-adopter. We need folks to embrace this program, gain benefits in realizing their current in-efficiencies and prove to the rest of the F5000 that it is possible to clean up the data center and do a good thing.

Thought #1   It would be really interesting for the EPA to publish the top 500 Energy Star certified companies.

Thought #2  It would be really interesting to only award federal business to companies in the 85+ score category.

Energy Star is coming… please don’t let it be a Death Star and destroy or de-rail your greening efforts…

Wow – my phone carrier ranks last! After being a loyal Verizon customer for so many years and so many phone bills – what gives? The TVR report states the following:

The Tomorrow’s Value Rating of the world’s largest information and communications technology (ICT) companies shows that sustainability leaders such as Vodafone, Nokia, HP and France Telecom are developing products and services to support the world’s response to climate change. The results of the Rating reflect the broader trend of ICT companies showing sustainability leadership.

However, while the sector continues to push best practice in sustainability innovation, there is considerable room for improvement in its management of its direct environmental impacts.

Also interesting to note:

Management of direct environmental impacts is a weak spot

While the sector continues to push best practice in sustainability innovation, its management of its direct environmental impacts leaves room for improvement. For example, while most companies have set CO2 emissions targets, the majority are struggling to achieve significant reductions. Panasonic is a notable exception to this rule.

So, how about looking at the Data Center folks?

Energy Star for data centers is coming.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is wrapping up work on an Energy Star program for data centers that it hopes to launch in June, EPA. So rather than wait for June – I decided to launch for own Rock Star initiative and post a video about the need for enterprise greening and highlighting some use cases to get folks thinking. Success comes in small steps they say…  so does any energy savings initiative. Becoming a Rock Star does as well – so since this is my first video – it’s a little shaky in spots, I shortened the clips, my Canadian “out” seems to pop in a few places.  But heck, just like Jason Bourne in the “Bourne Identity” – I can work on releasing some sequels from time to time and via video – share my thoughts on the market, the challenges and of course the hype. Make sure you select the HD option in the top right hand corner. I look better in HD. Posting a video of yourself is kinda scary to be honest – especially when you self create it. Is this what it’s like creating a Green Business Case? Kinda scary? Maybe – which is why I think this necessary step seems to be the stumbling block for most enterprises I speak with.

My video is short and sweet. “More is less”  – this is how I try to deal with everything these days. Maybe the use cases help you think a little about some “small steps” you could take within your organization. Hopefully my “trailer” help you see the big picture. If you have any video suggestions – I’m all ears. I hope to post some viral videos shortly on YouTube as a way to start to increase the awareness and need for data center efficiency. Stay tuned…

Now I like this. I  mean I  r-e-a-l-l-y  like this! Now, you’d have to know a little about my background to appreciate those comments – so for those of you who don’t know me – me let me share a few glimpses into my mysterious past. Back in the hay day of .dotcom and software start-ups – my first entree into the software start up world was in the middleware space. And yes – it was all about having a stack and being able to complete with the likes of IBM, BEA, and others to own the software infrastructure within an organization. Why did companies want stacks? Well, they didn’t necessarily want a stack – they just wanted the capabilities of a stack to solve the  integration and interoperability challenges that were slowing down their businesses

The more I look at current data center environments – the more I see the need for integration. Now don’t get flipped out – I am not saying someone needs to design an ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) or that SOA should finally arrive at the doorsteps of the data center. It has taken SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) a heck of a long time for IT to understand, expose and deliver these so desired “fined-grained services” so that composite applications could deliver that “WOW” factor to the business side of the enterprise and let those users realize a competitive and efficient business advantage.

What does this stack look like? Is it a software stack?

If you look at the stack – it’s a representation of all the “stuff” you need to worry about in the data center. Call it a blueprint or framework if you will. Data Center Blueprint 1.0! Now why do I like this? Because if the industry adopts and endorses a blueprint, framework or stack (you pick your favorite) then it will create a common language for vendors and customers to communicate. It also allows for the innovation and development of integration solutions to help weave together the various building blocks of the stack. From a vendor perspective – I would much rather share with a prospect “where” and “how” I fit into an architecture than to try and first understand/decipher 20 different customer created architectures.

What’s missing in this diagram? API’s! Imagine if we could over time associate the various API’s for each of these blocks, both to expose the data and the associated metric for that block? Ya! now hat’s what I’m talking about!  – That would be a perfect world – wouldn’t Tom? Reality: This is tough – since you’ve got a mix of legacy and new – and some of that legacy is locked down tighter than Fort Knox and it ain’t going no where soon.  So yes – definite challenge. It has taken SOA the last 10 years to work its way across the IT application layer – could we ever see a common set of “Data Center Services”? A rich repository of all my power, environmental, server, storage etc… data and metrics -  all neatly exposed and available for application consumption? Can you see it? I can – but it is years away.

The proposed framework is a step in the right direction. It could be the core building block stack for the data center. Adoption and endorsement determines fate in any type of effort towards standardization.

Hats off to the Data Center Pulse guys! Good stuff!

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?

If you are the kind of person who makes New Year’s resolutions – maybe you are thinking about being a better “green” person within your organization? The thing is – for most folks – just what does this really mean?

I’ve become a big fan of simplicity and transparency. Both in sales process, sales execution and sales training. If you are trying to train yourself in something new – start with the simple stuff first!Case in point – this book which I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of from Carol Baroudi who you may recognize from the Aberdeen Group. Carol is a Green and Sustainability consultant – so she lives and breathes this stuff!

I’m not that big a reader to be honest. I’m more of a scanner – so this book is good if you want to quickly get a grasp of what Green IT is also about and maybe some thoughts on how to drive these initiates within your organization.

Part 3 of the book is titled “Greening the Data Center” – so I would draw your attention to this section and chapters:

• Chapter 7: Laying the Foundation for Green Data Management
• Chapter 8: Maximizing Data Center Efficiency
• Chapter 9: Racking up Green Servers
• Chapter 10: Cooling your Data Center
• Chapter 11 Building a Green Storage System
• Chapter 12: Grooming the Network for Green
• Chapter 13: Using Virtualization

Wow – you can quickly get the big picture as you read through these chapters of all the different aspects of the data center that “green” can influence.

Cooling is the biggest cost in the data center – so chapter 10 has a section in “Benchmarking your Cooling System’s Efficiency” where we start to get into The Green Grid and PUE calculations.  It’s easy reading – and the sections are not designed to tire you out which is good!

For anyone who is new to the notion of  “Greening the Enterprise Data Center” – this is a great book to help you get started. If you want to pick up a copy – just google it and the usual sources show up.  Thanks Carol for getting the word out!

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!

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