Thursday, May 30th, 2013

Time	Event
11:30a	Data Center Jobs: Geist Global At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have a new job listing  from Geist Global, which is seeking a Sales Manager – U.S. Northwest  in Seattle, Washington. The Sales Manager – U.S. Northwest is responsible for developing a business plan and sales strategy for the market that ensures attainment of company sales goals and profitability, responsible for the performance and development of channel partners, initiating and coordinating development of action plans to penetrate new markets, willingness to participate in trade shows within assigned geographic region, and willingness to travel to other markets in assigned geographic region as the business grows. To view full details and apply, see job listing details. Are you hiring for your data center? You can list your company’s job openings on the Data Center Jobs Board, and also track new openings via our jobs RSS feed. (Comment on this)
11:45a	The Hidden Beauty of the Data Center A close up of a row of lights illuminating equipment inside a Savvis data center in Slough, outside of London. (Photo of Savvis Slough Campus by Luben Solev). With the right perspective, the inside of a data center is a visual feast. Today we kick off The Illustrated Data Center, a regular series that showcases some of the most unique and visually striking data centers we have seen. We begin with a look at the world of blinking lights that keep the Internet running, followed by photos illustrating the “Four Cs” of the inside of a data center – Corridors, Cabling, Cooling and Containment. If you like data centers, we know you’ll enjoy the The Illustrated Data Center. (Comment on this)
12:30p	Software-Defined Power: The Path to Ultimate Reliability Clemens Pfeiffer is the CTO of Power Assure and is a 25-year veteran of the software industry, where he has held leadership roles in process modeling and automation, software architecture and database design, and data center management and optimization technologies. CLEMENS PFEIFFER Power Assure About half of all service outages in data centers today are caused by power problems, and that percentage is expected to increase as the electric grid struggles to meet a growing demand on an aging infrastructure. Part of the reason for this shift is that hardware has become remarkably reliable, and the virtualization of servers, storage and network components, or the so called “Software-Defined Data Center,” has made applications immune to single points of failure. Power problems, by contrast, are only partially addressed by the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and backup generator. To enhance their business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, most organizations now operate multiple, geographically-dispersed data centers. While this investment is made primarily to protect against catastrophic events caused by major natural disasters, the arrangement can also afford greater immunity from power problems, whether caused by weather or disruptions on the grid. What is Software-Defined Power? Software-Defined Power is emerging as the solution to application-level reliability issues being caused by power problems. Software-Defined Power, like the broader Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), is about creating a layer of abstraction that makes it easier to continuously match resources with changing needs. For SDDC, the resources are the servers, storage and networking equipment, and the need is application service levels. For Software-Defined Power, the resource is the electricity required to power (and cool) all of that equipment, but the need is exactly the same: application service levels. With Software-Defined Power, overall reliability is improved by shifting the applications to the data center with the most dependable, available and cost-efficient power at any given time. Software-Defined Power is implemented using a software system capable of combining IT and facility/building management systems, and automating standard operating procedures, resulting in the holistic allocation of power within and across data centers, as required by the ongoing changes in application load. It’s About the Applications Once configured with the service level and other requirements for all applications, the Software-Defined Power solution continuously and automatically optimizes the resource allocations as it shifts loads between or among data centers. Adding power to the already existing software-defined computing, storage and network components of an application environment makes it possible to abstract applications fully from an individual data center and its power dependency. This is what enables the shifting and shedding of application capacity across multiple data centers by adjusting the IT equipment and critical facility infrastructure required at each, resulting in the maximum possible application-level reliability at the lowest operating cost. Not only does shifting loads between data centers help increase reliability by affording greater immunity from power problems that cause unplanned downtime, it also creates wider windows for the planned downtime required for routine maintenance and upgrades within in each data center. This makes it easier to operate applications 24×7 with no adverse impact on either availability or performance from power-related issues. Follow-the-Moon Strategies In addition to the increased reliability, Software-Defined Power also pays for itself by minimizing energy spend and enabling participation in lucrative demand response programs. Power is the most dependable and available at night, which is also when rates for electricity are normally the lowest. So shifting the load to “follow the moon” can afford considerable savings. Shifting load to a distant data center also enables shedding that load locally. A best practice in Software-Defined Power, therefore, is to power down the servers until they are needed again. This same ability to de- and re-active servers can also be used to dynamically match capacity to load within a single data center on a regular schedule or in response to changing application demand. Because utilities pay exorbitant rates for wholesale energy during periods of peak demand, they are willing to pay commercial and industrial customers handsomely to reduce usage during these peaks. Software-Defined Power enables data centers to participate in these demand response programs without adversely impacting on application service levels. Organizations can even go one step further: By knowing about potential grid issues, IT and facility managers can take preventive action to shift applications to another data center in advance of any power problems. The combination of paying less for energy and wasting less to power (and cool) idle servers (including during demand response events) can result in savings of over 50 percent. And considering that the operational expenditure for energy alone exceeds the capital expenditure for the average server today, the electric bill for a full rack of servers can be cut by as much as $25,000 every year. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
1:19p	Digital Realty Trust Acquires Six Austin Data Centers Digital Realty Trust acquired a six-building portfolio in Austin, Texas for $31.9 million. The portfolio is located at the MetCenter Business Park and consists of 337,000 square feet of operating data centers and flex space. The overall portfolio is 90 percent leased to a variety of companies, with two of the six buildings total approximately 100,000 net rentable square feet fully leased to three tenants. This move continues Digital’s recent streak of acquiring fully leased properties for income, plus adds some new development space for upside. “The acquisition of this portfolio achieves several key objectives for us,” said Scott Peterson, Chief Acquisitions Officer at Digital Realty. “It expands our existing data center footprint in the Austin market, while providing stable cash flow immediately at an attractive going-in cap rate. Second, it provides near-term opportunity to add value by lease existing vacant space. And third, it offers the option to convert a portion of the property to data center space over the longer term as leases expire.” The six buildings are located adjacent to Digital Realty’s data center at 7500 Metro Center Drive, approximately five miles southeast of the Austin central business district, and nearby Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. “This acquisition adds inventory to a market where we have already seen substantial absorption at our existing facilities, as well as strong demand from enterprise customers,” said Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer at Digital Realty. “It is a continuation of our strategy of growing a world class data center portfolio in markets where our customers want to be located.” Where are the customers wanting to be located? Just this year, the company has acquired facilities in Dallas, Phoenix , Minnesota, Toronto, Paris,  and Sydney. All of these acquisitions were in markets where the company says it saw very positive demand, and most of these properties were fully leased at time of acquisition. It also launched its own DCIM, announced it was seeking out tier certification for 20 facilities, and is building dark fiber connecting its key internet gateways. It upgraded its POD infrastructure to offer up to 1.2 megawatts in each data hall, up from 1.125. The company has kept busy. (Comment on this)
1:35p	The Evolution of the IT Professional – Understanding the Cloud’s Demands A staff member in an Equinix facility. The technology landscape has truly evolved over the past few years – and with that evolution comes a new demand for the future of IT administration. IT managers and engineers are tasked with knowing more, understanding further components within their own environments and must have the ability to truly be creative. The old days of IT saw engineering dedicated to one process. Rare interaction between teams was seen as an exception rather than norm. Cross-IT team collaboration would be usually done at the management level, and even then it wasn’t always successful. There is a new breed of engineers being born from the era of cloud computing. New job titles are being created with demands being placed on engineers who are unique and have the ability to communicate. In this post, we’ll outline some of the traits which are in high demand from this new type of IT professional. Among many new traits and personality qualities that an engineer may have, the following are beginning to emerge as truly defining characteristics of the new IT pro: Communication. There is a misconception and even a stereotype that IT people are quiet, introverted and often times don’t communicate well. Although in some cases this may be true, many successful IT professionals have broken out of that shell. Communication is crucial to the success of any IT person. The new technological environment calls for people who can not only walk the walk – but explain what route they took. Furthermore, this oftentimes will mean explaining various technology objectives to both end-uses and executive staff. Leadership. Administrators and engineers must take more of a leadership role if they wish to progress in their careers. Usually, this means saying ‘no’ to things. However, a real leader won’t only know when to say ‘no’, but also how to say it. Effectively challenging ideas and collaborating to help evolve solutions is much better than flat out saying ‘no’ to things. Drive. Complacency in IT has always had detrimental effects. With all of these new technologies being released on a seemingly daily basis – being complacent now is worse than ever. IT pros must have the drive to keep pushing forward, learning new things and expanding their horizons. “Thinking outside of the data center.” Cloud computing and distributed infrastructures have created a new line of thinking. IT folks, both young and seasoned, must know how to see the big picture whenever they’re working with a large corporate environment, including a thorough understanding of business goals and objectives. Cloud computing has truly created a new breed of architects who have to incorporate various technologies to establish sound solutions. We’ll get into this in the next blog! Collaboration. The ability to work with various teams and to collaborate on projects – even as a junior engineer – is truly important. Sharing ideas for the sake of best practices and collaboration will help ensure a good deployment. Even more important, it’ll enhance team work! The ability to think on your feet and go far beyond simple troubleshooting within an organization can mean the difference between a desk-job and sought after career advancement. Outside of the common “cloud” computing technology what else is driving this type of demand in today’s business IT world? The reality is that the logical progression of technologies has not only created the need for articulate engineers and architects – organizations now seek folks who can speak the language of many different technologies. As the data center advances, cloud and data center architects will have to learn about the various components that make up a solid data center infrastructure. This means understanding some of the following technologies: Unified, converged and high-density computing. Various types of network and WAN connection best practices. End-user management and security. IT consumerization and BYOD controls. Data management, replication and even analytics. Understanding around various cloud models, APIs, and deployment strategies. Disaster recovery, business continuity, and backup. Global server and traffic management. Data center design best practices and efficiencies. The modern data center, in reality, can be considered the home of the cloud. We can no longer think of the data center as stand-alone physical unit. These data warehouses and processing centers are creating massive connectivity points for an ever-expanding Internet and cloud environment. Today’s data center is really a logical connection point to many other data centers and the services that they may be running. Cloud and data center architects of tomorrow need to understand how this vast environment all functions together and how it affects the end-user. One of the biggest challenges for the new breed of engineers is designing an environment around one very important business and technology aspect: mobility. The ability to be agile, very mobile and provide on-demand services are becoming standard requirements for many data center providers. Not only will engineers and architects need to have the ability to communicate, they will need to know about many different technologies which directly affect the modern data center. These IT professionals will often act as the liaison between numerous different, still very important, business stakeholders. This means translating user and executive needs into direct IT solutions. For those professionals that can do this – there will be a need for them, both now and in the future. (Comment on this)
3:34p	IBM Robot Maps Data Center Temperature and Humidity Data center managers need to measure temperature and humidity in a data center, and now they can use small robot by IBM to perform that function. This 1:38 minute video shows the IBM robot and what it can do the data center. The data from the robot is used to develop an efficiency map, which shows temperature differences in the data center and can guide you in making your data center airflow more efficient. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube. (Comment on this)

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