Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

Time	Event
11:41a	Data Center Jobs: ViaWest, Inc. At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have a new job listing from ViaWest, Inc., which is seeking a Regional Data Center Manager in Chaska, Minnesota. The Regional Data Center Manager is responsible for managing facilities staff to deliver expected service levels to customers within the prescribed budget, managing team schedule to ensure customer support and facility coverage, serving as an operational leader in the region, coordinating work assignments among facilities staff, vendors, and contractors, reviewing work orders to ensure that assignments are completed, reviewing price quotes for the procurement of parts, services, and labor for projects, developing and maintaining positive relationships with customers, and responding to problems in a tactful and expedient manner. 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)
12:58p	Best Practices for Lifting and Handling Data Center Equipment Jake Iskhakov is the Director of Sales & Marketing at ServerLIFT Corporation. JAKE ISKHAKOV ServerLift Of all the tasks that data center teams are accountable for on any given day, handling data center equipment may not seem like the most mission-critical job. The average data center professional likely ranks configuring software or dealing with daily end-user demands as more important than lifting and installing servers into tall data center racks. However, these kinds of tasks are incredibly important to the enterprise, as proper handling of data center equipment will ensure that a data center is run optimally. Should anything go wrong, the potential fallout can dramatically hurt a company and put an employee’s well-being at risk. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, lifting more than 50 pounds of equipment drastically increases the risk of injury. Approximately 36 percent of all medical issues leading to missed workday caused by back and shoulder problems. While a data center may not be first place that comes to mind when thinking about these kinds of injuries, it should not be surprising that accidents occur, considering data center equipment can weigh up to 500 pounds or more. According to a blind study conducted by ServerLIFT Corporation in 2012, over 50 percent of data center professionals were aware of injuries in their data centers. Aside from the risk of serious injuries, these types of incidents can be especially costly to a data centers bottom line. Improper lifting techniques and the absence to proper tools increase the potential risk of damaging or even breaking expensive IT assets. In the aforementioned study, more than 65 percent reported dropped equipment in their data centers. Mistakes of this magnitude can set data centers back thousands of dollars and more importantly, delay critical go to market deadlines. What can companies do to prevent these problems? Data centers can take a few key steps to minimize the likelihood of injury or mishap occurring while handling equipment. Think in teams:  IT professionals tend to go above and beyond the call of duty. Because of tight deadlines and understaffing, they take on the task of handling heavy equipment alone in some cases. While this shows initiative, these selfless acts can often lead to drops and on-the-job injuries. HP & Dell recommend having at least two people install devices into server racks, and possibly more depending on how heavy the equipment is or the department member’s physical capabilities. Slow and steady wins the race:  In certain instances, people may be tempted to carry and put servers into place as quickly as possible in order to get the task out of the way. These types of attempts can lead to messy installs and unplanned downtime. To avoid this scenario, IBM recommends teams take as much time as is necessary to ensure that the job is done right the first time around. Utilize lifting technology:  Sometimes, it is best to let a machine do the work of two or three people. Instead of risking injury and breakdown by manually lifting servers, try using fully powered lifts that are certified by the manufacturer for use in the data center. This will enable your team to quickly and safely get heavy hardware into place correctly the first time around. It is easy for us as human beings, to assign price tags to tangible items. Data centers are no exception, carrying some of the most expensive technology equipment in the world. As you begin to think about your most important data center assets, consider the staff as well. While a human life is priceless, the cost of an injury is very pricey. 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)
1:00p	With Startup LitBit, Noteboom Targets Emerging Markets Scott Noteboom has left Apple to form LitBit, a startup focused on bringing energy-efficient data centers to the emerging world. (Photo: Rich Miller) How do you bring the power of the Internet to underserved emerging markets? Google is floating balloons. Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are focused on better mobile connectivity. Scott Noteboom is taking a different approach: finding the right spots to deploy advanced Internet infrastructure that is energy-efficient and affordable. To pursue this mission, he’s giving up one of the best jobs in the data center industry. Noteboom recently left his post as a key player in the data center team at Apple to found LitBit, a startup that aims to transform the data center landscape of emerging markets, starting with China and eventually expanding to markets like India, Latin America, Russia and Africa. That might seem like a huge challenge. But Noteboom has been on the forefront of innovation in the data center industry for the last 15 years in posts at AboveNet, Yahoo and most recently at Apple. As Head of Infrastructure Strategy, Design & Development at Apple, Noteboom worked on the expanson of the iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina and additional sites in Oregon and Nevada to support the growth of Apple’s iCloud and iTunes services. Enabling “The Next Billion Users” “LitBit was created to bring next generation converged infrastructure technology into emerging markets that require cleaner environment, greater efficiency and lower economics,” said Noteboom, the founder and CEO of LitBit. “Our goal is to enable the next billion users of digital technology to emerge with a 10x lower environmental impact than the first billion. “At the same time, we are here to navigate the cultural, governmental, language and other complexities that can go along with developing infrastructure in emerging markets, so that our customers can simply focus on executing their business models via infrastructure solutions they are comfortable with and trust,” he added. That’s a particular challenge in China, a market where tight government oversight of Internet content and infrastructure has complicated efforts by global firms to access the country’s enormous market of Internet users. Bringing Accessible, Energy-Efficient Infrastructure Noteboom believes he’s put together the connections and resources to make China more accessible. ”We believe that we will be the first provider to enable non-Chinese companies to smoothly deploy in China,” said Noteboom, who said he hopes to bring new data center technologies into China to realize exceptional efficiency and economics. Noteboom isn;t supplying many details just yet. A key aspect of the plan will be site selection. Noteboom says LitBit hopes to identify the Asian equivalents of Quincy, Washington – previously unknown sites that provide exceptional economics and efficiency for data center operators. What does it say when one of the leading data center thought leaders leaves a position at the pinnacle of the U.S. technology industry for a startup? Scott Noteboom has always been a guy who likes challenges and solving hard problems. While there are few details about his plans so far, the debut of LitBit suggests that some of the industry’s most interesting challenges lie in unlocking these emerging global markets. (Comment on this)
2:10p	Iron Mountain: Underground Data Center Tour Nicholas Salimbene, Director, Business Development, for Iron Mountain Data Centers, gives a video tour of its underground data center, which is located 220 feet underground. The facility is constructed in a former limestone mine and impervious to natural disaster from storms to earthquakes. Iron Mountain uses the underground location to cool the data halls, with underground water and naturally low temperatures. The video shows an overview of the facility through stages of construction. Video runs 2:37 minutes. For additional video content, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube. (Comment on this)
2:15p	Oracle Introduces Big Memory Machines and Enhanced In-memory Applications Oracle takes over San Francisco this week, as its OpenWorld conference sets the stage for blockbuster announcements on hardware, software and the cloud. On Monday, Oracle (ORCL) announced new SPARC M6-32 servers and SuperCluster big memory machines, complemented by numerous applications now being enhanced with an In-Memory option. The event conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #OOW13. Big Memory Machines Oracle announced the SPARC M6-32 server and SuperCluster M6-32 engineered systems, which is based on new 3.6 GHz 12-core SPARC M6 processors. The new SPARC M6-32 servers feature up to 32 terabytes of memory and 384 processor cores, and support electrically isolated Dynamic Domains which provide complete security, service, fault and resource isolation for maintaining maximum availability and isolation of consolidated workloads. Additionally, Oracle VM Server for SPARC allows the creation of up to 128 virtual machines per Dynamic Domain, further virtualizing the massive memory and I/O resources of the SPARC M6-32 server. The Oracle SuperCluster M6-32 can provide 10 to 20 times faster performance on business critical applications, 10 times faster database queries and reporting, 10 times data base compression, and 5 times faster time to market. It contains the highest availability with no single point of failure and the highest consolidation ratios of any Oracle server. “The SPARC M6-32 server and SuperCluster M6-32 fundamentally change data center economics by combining high end computing performance and availability with the cost efficiency of entry level servers,” said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems, Oracle. “With our big memory machines you can run huge databases and applications in memory to accelerate performance 10 or 20 times, and experience mainframe-like reliability without paying the high premiums built into other vendor’s high-end systems.” Enhanced In-Memory Applications Oracle announced In-Memory applications with the new Oracle Database In-Memory option for Oracle Database 12c, which helps customers accelerate database performance for analytics, data warehousing, reporting and online transaction processing (OLTP). Every application that runs on Oracle Database 12c can automatically and transparently take advantage of Oracle Database In-Memory option. Existing applications will retain full database functionality while experiencing effortless speedups. Even more new applications will be developed that were previously impractical due to performance limitations. Applications include JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite, and Oracle Value Chain planning. “To deliver a consistent and compelling customer experience across all touch points, marketers need a complete digital marketing solution that can track, understand and analyze marketing and social interactions at scale,” said Meg Bear, Group Vice President of Oracle Cloud Social Platform. (Comment on this)
3:00p	IO Files for Initial Public Offering A look at IO.Anywhere modules in the IO Ohio facility in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: Rich Miller) The data center and hosting IPOs are beginning to multiply. IO plans an initial public offering of common stock, the company said Friday. The company’s filing is confidential and currently being reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but would be made public for investor review before any IPO. IO is the third hosting and infrastructure firm that has filed plans to go public. QTS unveiled IPO plans in August, while hosting roll-up Endurance International Group (EIG) announced an IPO filing earlier this month. CyrusOne is the most recent data center firms to have competed an IPO, raising $313 million in its January debut on Wall Street. The filing is not unexpected,as industry analysts have long speculated that IO was an IPO candidate. Last month IO hired a new CFO with experience at public companies, which is often seen as a precursor to an IPO. The IPO by IO will provide investors with the first opportunity to invest directly in a “pure play” on the modular data center deployment model which IO has labeled “Data Center 2.0.” It also arrives at an opportune time, as Wall Street seems particularly receptive to technology IPOs. On Friday, shares of cybersecurity firm FireEye and advertising tech company RocketFuel both soared 90 percent or more in their first day of trading. IO was founded in 2007 and has been a pioneer in the emerging market for modular data centers that are built in a factory using repeatable designs and can be shipped to either an IO data center or a customer premises. The company has built two data centers in the Phoenix area, along with facilities in Ohio, New Jersey and Signapore. In addition to its IO.Anywhere modular technology, the company has also developed IO.OS software for managing complex data center infrastructures across multiple sites. The company has raised at least $250 million in equity funding: Shortly after its founding in 2008, the company raised $56 million in funding from private equity firm Sterling Partners, which had previously backed the IO team when it developed the Downtown Phoenix Technology Exchange  before selling it to Digital Realty Trust in a 2006 transaction valued at $175 million. In 2011, IO raised $105 million in growth capital from Sterling Partners, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and members of the IO management team. In Oct. 2012, IO lined up $90 million in equity funding from a group led by New World Ventures, an investment arm of the Pritzker family. The investment round included $50 million from New World and $40 million from IO’s existing backers, which include Sterling Partners and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. IO has also tapped the debt markets to fund its growth. In May the company arranged a $260 million credit facility led by Wells Fargo, with participation from Mutual Bank of Omaha, Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, National Bank of Arizona, Goldman Sachs Lending Partners and Morgan Stanley Bank. (Comment on this)

<< Previous Day

2013/09/24 [Calendar]

Next Day >>