Lee Tech OnTap

I attended the October Lee Tech on Tap event in Chicago last week, and aside from seconding Dave O'Hara's comments this past summer about it being a refreshing approach/alternative to the data center conference I have to add that it is nice to see Chicago and the Midwest represented so well. There was a large turn-out for this event and some (in my opinion) big names in the industry.

The ecosystem of data center companies is part of what makes this event unique. I've tried, unsuccessfully to categorize some publicly traded 'data center' companies and there are just too many facets of what everyone does to compare apples to apples. The Lee Tech on Tap formula seems perfect -- industry folks speaking a common language, an open floor to socialize and network, and that ever popular/perfect catalyst.... beer.

With hectic schedules and for some, a long drive time into Chicago, maybe we should implement a Willow Garage Texai remote presence system at future meetings. :) I would have to have my robot be my true Internet height of 6'7" though.

--------------------

Return to blogging --- I have been somewhat absent this year in my blogging for datacenter links. Reasons include:

1. Time. Work and family take up a large percentage of my time.
2. Data Center Knowledge - for over a year now I have been writing for DCK and absolutely love it. DCK is THE place to go for data center news and I enjoy writing for it. To see my posts, try either this link or this one.
3. Consulting -- since there are 24 hours in a day, I figured why not. More on this one in the (hopefully) very near future.

I am going to try and take more time for blogging here - for many reasons, but one big one is that it is a learning style for me. If I write about a particular topic or technology it helps me learn, and I may even find new applications for that blogged knowledge. I also firmly believe in sharing, and as long as readers realize I am just a long-winded geek and not a subject expert on much of anything......

Anyway - I don't have an editorial calendar by any means, but I do still have a strong interest in the smart grid and green technologies for the data center. I also want to still (attempt) to track the financial side of this industry and look at the overall trends going on.

I am in the process of dusting off my 2007 white paper on data center site selection -- it is due for a version 2.0 refresh and I should have that out early next year.

One last thing -- Twitter is also a reason my blogging has declined. With the desire to 'just' share a quick link, I have found twitter to be a much easier way to do just that. One site I just started to play around with takes my datacenter twitter list and makes a daily newspaper out of it. Check it out here.