Friday, July 7th, 2017

Time	Event
3:13p	Friday Funny: Racking and Stacking Here’s the cartoon for this month’s Data Center Knowledge caption contest. This is how it works: Diane Alber, the Arizona artist who created Kip and Gary, creates a cartoon, and we challenge our readers to submit the funniest, most clever caption they think will be a fit. Then we ask our readers to vote for the best submission and the winner receives a signed print of the cartoon. Submit your caption in the comments below. Congratulations to Deborah Melchert, who won June’s contest for the Trade Show cartoon. Deborah’s caption was: They must have moved it to the cloud this year. Some good submissions came in for June’s Modular Data Center edition; all we need now is a winner. Help us out by submitting your vote below: What should the bubble say? Take Our Poll Stay current on Data Center Knowledge’s data center news by subscribing to our RSS feed and daily e-mail updates, or by following us on Twitter or Facebook or join our LinkedIn Group – Data Center Knowledge. (Comment on this)
4:00p	Microsoft Confirms Layoffs Across Sales Organization to Improve Stance in Cloud War Brought to you by IT Pro Microsoft has confirmed a round of layoffs said to impact about 10 percent of its total salesforce, or approximately 3,000 workers, with the majority outside of the U.S., according to several reports on Thursday. The news comes nearly a week after rumors started to swirl that Microsoft would make job cuts in the thousands, in areas like field sales, to support growth in its Azure public cloud. Microsoft said that 75 percent of the jobs that will be eliminated are outside of the U.S. The company said it is implementing the changes not to cut costs, but to improve how it handles sales; specifically, it said it will use employees who are more knowledgeable in particular verticals so they can sell bigger packages, CNBC reports. As Microsoft vies for more enterprise cloud clients, having better trained salespeople, who are knowledgeable about a specific vertical, will mean they are better equipped to meet client needs. To that end, Microsoft said in an internal memo that it would split commercial sales into two segments – one targeting the biggest customers and one on small and medium clients. In addition, Microsoft employees will be aligned around six industry verticals – manufacturing, financial services, retail, health, education and government. “Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others,” Microsoft told CNBC. This article originally appeared on IT Pro. (Comment on this)
4:30p	Rittal Joins LinkedIn’s Data Center Standard Foundation Rittal, one of the world’s largest suppliers of data center racks, has joined the Open19 Foundation, a new non-profit governing a data center standard created by LinkedIn, now a Microsoft subsidiary. Open19 describes several standard form factors for server chassis and a cage to install those servers in. It also includes a power distribution design, as well as connectors for power and networking that do away with cables. The cage fits into any typical 19-inch data center rack, and everything about the standard is meant to simplify and accelerate hardware installation in a computing facility. By joining the foundation Rittal adds another major data center vendor name to the list of companies supporting LinkedIn’s effort to standardize its design. Other major logos on the member list are Schneider Electric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and GE, among others. See also: Open19 Aims to Do What OCP Hasn’t Done Along with announcing its Open19 membership, Rittal said it was introducing a data center rack product based on the standard. The foundation is structured to govern Open19 as an open source project. Companies can contribute intellectual property to the project if they want to, but they’re not required to open source their innovation as a prerequisite for participating. While Rittal’s announcement focuses on the rack aspect of Open19, the project’s scope is to standardize the way servers are deployed in core and edge data centers. Micro-data centers for edge deployments have been a major focus for Rittal recently, but the company made no mention of whether its micro-data center product line will in any way be affected by Open19. See also: GE Bets on LinkedIn’s Data Center Standard for Predix at the Edge At the end of the day, an Open19 membership is a relatively low-risk endeavor for a vendor like Rittal. It can be involved without being forced to let go of any IP, and its whole point is to be compatible with existing rack standards, meaning there’s no threat to Rittal’s big data center rack business. Read more: Open19, the Vendor-Friendly Open Source Data Center Project (Comment on this)
6:16p	IT Management Job Overwhelming? There Are Resources That Can Help My daily trek to Philadelphia is often fraught with obstacles – mainly traffic, traffic accidents, and longer delays looking at the traffic and traffic accidents.  It’s not significantly different than what we deal with on a daily basis as managers and supervisors.  Every day we walk in with the best of intentions, only to have a variety of diversions, changes, and personalities threatening our ability to reach the goal we’ve set for the day.   But it took a simple encounter at a traffic light at 34th and Market Street to set a different perspective for how I viewed the work I was doing and those people whom I often spend more time with than my family. Ironically my standard route to get to the office was blocked by a variety of construction trades furiously unloading their building materials.  Knowing I was going to have to sit through multiple light cycles to get around one city block was not my idea of a good time, and anyone who was sitting next to me in traffic and could read lips certainly knew it.  But on this day the detour would result in a “teachable moment.” A variety of people proceeded across the crosswalk.  As I looked to my right, taking a slow and steady approach was a visually impaired man, clearly familiar with the city.  Despite that, he was headed directly for a car that had pulled up further than the crosswalk allowed.  At that point a young man, also crossing the street, took him by the arm and directed him safely to the sidewalk.  This same young man then had to wait for the next light cycle to get to his destination – likely a bit late for his class. Us managers, and especially those of us in IT, also sometimes just need someone to “get us across the street.” The rapid pace of technology – new and legacy – continues to challenge us.  The machinations required to oversee run-the-engine activities, continuous education to stay current with the market and business acumen, block-and-tackle for the endless stream of business issues and risks, people issues and risks, all this together can be not just exhausting but also impair our abilities. But there are options for getting help. They include: Peer Options: Because we spend so much time with the same co-workers, there is a tendency to huddle with this group to consult, discuss, collaborate.  Certainly there is a level of benefit to engaging with someone who knows the organization, the operation, and the culture, but a fresh set of eyes can provide an impetus for creative and innovative solutions.  For example, while there may be a level of competitive posturing between organizations, there is a natural collaboration that occurs between executive management – kind of a mutual admiration, if you will – that allows relationships to be forged despite market position.   Middle and senior managers need to tap into these information channels – much easier now with social media venues – sharing and collaborating on topics not just domestically, but internationally. Local Organizations: One of the most economical methods of networking for a manager and their staff is the plethora of local organizations available that meet at some regular interval.  While the natural tendency is to attend and collaborate with organizations in your own technology sweet spot, occasionally attending those outside of your sphere of influence can be just as valuable.  Can’t find a local activity in a discipline of interest?  Work with your vendor representatives to put you in touch with one, or if possible, host an event.  As a host you can maximize the offering to your organization with minimal cost or risk, if you’re worried about you or your staff being offsite for the day.  AFCOM local chapters provide a great option, as do other national affiliates with dispersed member populations.  In many cases, local events will allow you to try a meeting out without a fee allowing you to assess its value before forking out the dues. Social Media: I was speaking at a data center event several years back and was shocked to see the number of individuals (when posed the question) had no presence in any form of (work based) social media.  We all know that this industry is suffering from a lack of contemporary interest in this field, but avoiding education and use (or even understanding) of how social media works in the communication universe is not only doing a disservice to yourself, but also your staff.  Even if you’re not comfortable using one of a number of options available, at least have a working knowledge of their potential uses, benefits, and risks. National Organizations: There are traditionally fees associated with membership of a national organization, so it is critical to understand the value proposition that these groups bring to you as an individual as well as your organization.  While discounted conference fees are an interesting incentive, it is the (traditionally no-charge) webinars, (member only) blogs, etc. that really give the subscriber the benefit of membership.  But all national memberships are not created equal and need to be vetted before pushing the submit key.  Similar to contracts, read the fine print – most come with an auto-renewal option – based on your organization’s protocol this could be problematic. Vendor Partners: While certain purchases just “have to happen”  – think an inventory of contingency drives – there are those purchases that require a true “partnership” with a service provider.  Developing these business relationships bring with them the advantages of valuable resources in all aspects of technology.  A true vendor partner, despite providing product or service for one discipline, will readily make subject matter experts available to you in other disciplines.   I’m not talking a professional services engagement, moreover a casual conversation that can help you make an educated decision.  This subtle distinction is how I distinguish who I consider a “vendor” versus a “partner”. As our industry continues to evolve to focus more on the “business of IT,” understanding how to make use of resources that can help we as professionals bridge gaps of information and become more effective as managers and as leaders is imperative.  And while it’s quite unlikely that my commute is going to improve anytime soon, there certainly is no shortage of dots that I can connect as I ( as we all should) continue to ponder those subtle anomalies of everyday life and how they permeate “opportunities” of a management career. Donna Manley is an IT senior director for a major university’s Information Systems and Computing (ISC) organization, managing its central administrative data center, the sole IVY League University ISO 9001:2008 certified data center for quality across all ISC Computer Operations services and support disciplines. Involved in various information technology national and local organizations, she currently serves as president of the AFCOM Midlantic Chapter and serves on the Data Center Institute board. (Comment on this)
7:05p	As APM Evolves, So Too Must IT Issue Resolution Mehdi Daoudi is CEO and Co-Founder for Catchpoint. The field of application performance management (APM) is rapidly transforming, driven by a trifecta of increasing user demands, higher potential for lost revenues and greater reputational risks. Traditional APM solutions have focused on correlating website and application performance levels to internal data center elements, helping to identify what is causing an online service to grow sluggish, or altogether unavailable. While this internal focus remains important, today’s organizations are increasingly incorporating external third-party elements and infrastructures beyond their firewall, in the never-ending pursuit to out-do competitors with faster, more feature-rich websites. These include third-party services (everything from social network plug-ins, to photo display, to video services and analytics and marketing tags) as well as infrastructures (CDNs, the cloud, and DNS providers). With user performance (speed and availability) increasingly influenced by these elements, APM is morphing into what Gartner calls digital experience management – or DEM, where the user experience is the ultimate metric. DEM is triggering significant changes in the more established discipline of IT issue resolution, including the following: Greater Coverage Area: The IT issue resolution surface area is expanding to include both internal and external elements, precisely correlating these with website and application performance levels in real-time. Ideally, information on these elements should be available in a single view, providing IT and DevOps teams with a quick summary and contextual information, without the need to toggle between multiple screens. There may be times when an offending element is outside the firewall, and beyond an organization’s direct control – for example, a slow regional ISP or a poorly performing cloud service. Even in instances such as these, knowledge is power – because wasted war-rooming time can be avoided; SLAs can be enforced; and proactive communications with impacted users can be implemented. Advanced Analytics: IT issue resolution consists of four phases – detecting the problem, diagnosing the problem (identification), fixing it, and verifying that performance levels have returned to normal. According to Puppet Labs’ 2017 State of DevOps Report, the speed of this end-to-end process is a major factor distinguishing high-performing teams (who keep the process under an hour) from medium- and poor performers (who can take anywhere from one day, up to a full week). Phase two – identification – is the lengthiest, most arduous leg of this race for most organizations, and the one most primed for improvement. The issue isn’t insufficient data, or the wrong type of data, being collected.  Rather, the challenge is the increased complexity of today’s IT infrastructure, which has resulted in massive amounts of performance data being generated from internal and third-party systems. If performance problems are the tip of an iceberg, advanced analytics are the key to quickly identifying the root cause lying way below the surface. Becoming More Proactive and Predictive: According to a research study conducted by Enterprise Management Associates, even with a variety of toolsets in place, 36 percent of teams find out about performance-related problems via calls from users. In a social networked culture – where disgruntled customers can vent their grievances to thousands in mere seconds – this paradigm needs to change. Having more advanced analytics will help, by making it easier and faster to identify root issues, while reducing the number of false positives (often leading to ignored alerts) as well as false negatives (resulting in issues going undetected for a length of time.). However, more predictive capabilities are also needed – allowing teams to see the likely impact of a third-party issue, in terms of both user experiences and business metrics like revenues. This helps organizations avoid being caught flat-footed, while also giving an opportunity to prioritize and get ahead of problems, ideally before users are impacted. Selective Artificial Intelligence (AI): Like many areas of technology, AI is securing a foothold in performance monitoring, including digital performance assistants with natural language processing capabilities. These are positive developments, considering that IT issue resolution has typically required highly trained (and highly paid) experts to sift through and make sense of vast amounts of performance data. AI can certainly play a valuable role in automating these processes and helping find patterns across amassed data. But IT issue resolution isn’t a completely “hands off” process just yet, and it’s dubious that it ever will be. AI’s real value is in empowering humans to take appropriate action – for example, issuing an earnest or even humorous apology to users in the event of an outage, or negotiating with a contracted third-party service on needed performance improvements. These are things machines simply can’t learn or be taught to do. Conclusion We live in an age where managing IT incidents is getting more and more difficult, due to an overgrowth of performance-impacting elements. The past few months have provided several examples of this – for example, the Amazon AWS S3 outage in February, which caused problems for hundreds of sites; as well as  Lululemon’s 22-hour site outage, which was blamed on IBM cloud services. It is no longer alright to assume that just because your data center systems are humming along nicely, users are having an excellent experience. Unless they are being consistently monitored, external third-party services and systems represent a huge (and potentially costly) blindspot. As APM evolves to DEM to address this reality, related disciplines must change in lockstep. The advances described here will be critical as IT issue resolution aligns to DEM by focusing on the ultimate metric – the user experience. Opinions expressed in the article above do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Data Center Knowledge and Penton. 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)

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