"Level 3 Financing, Inc., has received commitments from lenders to increase the borrowings under its existing $1.4 billion senior secured credit facility through the creation of a $220 million Tranche B loan"
That quote was from the StreetInsider.com article on the Level3 announcement. The loan is reported to be used for "general corporate purposes". I'm a techie - so I had to Google what "general corporate purposes" meant. :) Apparently it means we're going to get a ton of money to do what we want with it and not tell anyone.
Rob Powell at the Telecom Ramblings blog had a pretty funny April fools post about CEO James Crowe moving his office to an undisclosed monastery deep in the Himalayas. Rob also suggests that the cash could be used for purchasing Qwest longhaul -- which makes sense to me.
Last Thursday Level3 announced some new wavelength service offerings for network protection, additional bandwidth options and performance guarantees.
Level3 has posted their Red Couch interviews, taken at SXSW last month - including one from Matt Tanase from Rackspace.
Below is a 6 month chart of LVLT from WikiInvest
Monday, April 06, 2009
Xerox $100 million outsource deal to HCL Technologies
Xerox will pay $100 Million over six years for HCL Technologies to manage disaster recovery preparation and consolidate data centers across North America and Europe.
This article over on MarketWatch has the details and quite the discussion thread to follow.
This article over on MarketWatch has the details and quite the discussion thread to follow.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Data Center Design
As I read the Pingdom article about "8 ways to make data centers less boring"....I recalled a TED talk I watched recently. The talk was from Don Norman, and I later learned that it was a speech from 2003! Anyway, it was a Really good talk and made me think about the overall design of a data center and how it makes you feel when seeing it.
I work in the colo industry, so we have to sell the data center as a product and after listening to Don Norman I can see how design, architecture and a number of other details effect how the data center is experienced by customers and employees alike.
Even the companies making data center containers today pay attention to the outside colors, layout of racks and shiny metal curves inside. Functionality, efficiency and cost will always trump .... because utlimately the data center has a sole purpose.....but why not put the little bit of effort into the principles that Don talks about and make it even better.
Check out Don's TED Talk here
P.S.: The 2008 talk from Mike Rowe (host of Dirty Jobs) is still by FAR the best one I have seen.
I work in the colo industry, so we have to sell the data center as a product and after listening to Don Norman I can see how design, architecture and a number of other details effect how the data center is experienced by customers and employees alike.
Even the companies making data center containers today pay attention to the outside colors, layout of racks and shiny metal curves inside. Functionality, efficiency and cost will always trump .... because utlimately the data center has a sole purpose.....but why not put the little bit of effort into the principles that Don talks about and make it even better.
Check out Don's TED Talk here
P.S.: The 2008 talk from Mike Rowe (host of Dirty Jobs) is still by FAR the best one I have seen.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday Links - March 30, 2009
LOTS of news today, and not much time, so here you go.....
NYT: Rackable vows to outlast price war with Dell. Interesting story about Rackable and their history and strategy against Dell. I like Rackable....I don't think they are the right solution for 'everyone', but there is a lot of potential.
Rackable, along with Intel, Netapp and Akamai have probably bought a few steak dinners for Facebook executives lately. Data Center Knowledge reported today about them seeking up to $100 million to expand data centers. To compliment that post and the Businessweek article, I found these interesting:
I can just feel the momentum going for container data centers.... and apparently CRG West gets it also. Data Center Knowledge reports on a partnership with CRG West and HP to deploy the HP POD container. Very cool stuff. Check out the press release here.
"Data Center Fabric" is fast becoming a big term for 2009. Juniper Networks outlined their vision and strategy today for the next generation data center fabric. David Yen's blog at Juniper also has some details on project 'Stratus' .... here.
"PFB Seeks 40 million pounds in Data Center Financing" . If my currency conversion is correct, that's about $57 million. Pinder Fry and Benjamin is a London-based real estate firm with an interesting data center investment portfolio. The Data Center Dynamics article states that "The company said this third round of funding would be used to invest in the sites to which it has already committed and new data center investments." The March 9 Offer Summary can be found here.
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit the bay area this morning -- about 16 miles east of San Jose. The interesting thing was that a new fault was discovered. No major damage was reported. Lots of tweets surrounded the event this morning as well. No news or impact on data centers that I have read about yet.
Check out the Phase 2 notes from Michael J. Morris on his data center project - with networking based on the Cisco Nexus-series line. It sounds like a very fun project
Finally -- this is an Iowa blog, so I have to say GO Gov. Culver Go! :) Governer Culver announced he had a positive, productive meeting with Microsoft today. The status of the West Des Moines data center hasn't changed, but at least it isn't cancelled. I am still SUPER curious to see if the Iowa facility will be the test bed for their 4th generation design.
NYT: Rackable vows to outlast price war with Dell. Interesting story about Rackable and their history and strategy against Dell. I like Rackable....I don't think they are the right solution for 'everyone', but there is a lot of potential.
Rackable, along with Intel, Netapp and Akamai have probably bought a few steak dinners for Facebook executives lately. Data Center Knowledge reported today about them seeking up to $100 million to expand data centers. To compliment that post and the Businessweek article, I found these interesting:
- Niall Kennedy has a very nice write-up with an amazing amount of detail about Facebook operations, user stats and data centers.
- Fool.com also has a nice commentary about the TriplePoint Capital conversations and overall troubled state of banks with tech companies.
I can just feel the momentum going for container data centers.... and apparently CRG West gets it also. Data Center Knowledge reports on a partnership with CRG West and HP to deploy the HP POD container. Very cool stuff. Check out the press release here.
"Data Center Fabric" is fast becoming a big term for 2009. Juniper Networks outlined their vision and strategy today for the next generation data center fabric. David Yen's blog at Juniper also has some details on project 'Stratus' .... here.
"PFB Seeks 40 million pounds in Data Center Financing" . If my currency conversion is correct, that's about $57 million. Pinder Fry and Benjamin is a London-based real estate firm with an interesting data center investment portfolio. The Data Center Dynamics article states that "The company said this third round of funding would be used to invest in the sites to which it has already committed and new data center investments." The March 9 Offer Summary can be found here.
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit the bay area this morning -- about 16 miles east of San Jose. The interesting thing was that a new fault was discovered. No major damage was reported. Lots of tweets surrounded the event this morning as well. No news or impact on data centers that I have read about yet.
Check out the Phase 2 notes from Michael J. Morris on his data center project - with networking based on the Cisco Nexus-series line. It sounds like a very fun project
Finally -- this is an Iowa blog, so I have to say GO Gov. Culver Go! :) Governer Culver announced he had a positive, productive meeting with Microsoft today. The status of the West Des Moines data center hasn't changed, but at least it isn't cancelled. I am still SUPER curious to see if the Iowa facility will be the test bed for their 4th generation design.
5 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes until opening night of Baseball!!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
GE 750kVA SG Series Digital Energy UPS
Yesterday GE Digital Energy (a division of General Electric) announced that its 750kVA SG Series Digital Energy UPS has been certified as an Ecoimagination product.
Check out the press release here
and the product page here.
“As the IT industry’s demand for data storage grows significantly each year, so does the amount of energy needed to run servers and data centers,” said Larry Sollecito, President and CEO, GE Digital Energy. “GE’s investment in more energy efficient UPS technology helps data centers achieve a high level of energy efficiency without sacrificing high power capacity or reliability. A number of large data centers have already placed orders for the highly efficient 750kVA UPS.”I'm going to have to look at this UPS a little closer. The press release touts some impressive cost savings figures.
Check out the press release here
and the product page here.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday Links
Just some quick links to things I found on the net today -- no time to comment; just things I found to be interesting.....
Check out the drawing in this IEEE Spectrum article. It looks like another approach to the Microsoft 4th Generation data center (outdoor container park)! The article is good also --- although it is kind of a summary of what has gone on the last 6-12 months....nothing new.
Power Grid Found Susceptible. I'm a big fan of SmartGrids, but like anything else they need to be EXTREMELY careful with this. Security firm IOActive is offering the security lesson....maybe a few rants from Christopher Hoff would help as well.
Just to show I'm not a complete Cisco fan-boy.... Force10 announced some big iron today. They unveiled a new line of switches and routers "designed to improve the performance, management and cost effectiveness of virtualized data center and cloud computing environments." Pretty cool stuff from an initial quick glance.
As many of you know, I blog from Iowa and simply can NOT escape the stupid stereotype about farmers. I've worked on a few IT projects in the past that were for, or benefited farmers, and so I thought this was interesting..... it's a map showing broadband in america -- percentage of farmers with high speed internet.
March 19 announcement from Rackable: "The CloudRack C2 servers can run at 104 degrees inside the data center, and they offload power supply to the rack to reduce energy wasted in converting AC electricity from the wall to DC electricity used by the box to 1 percent"
I'm usually on the same page as Om Malik.... but have to disagree with him on this one. He thinks Cisco should buy Sun, not IBM.
Check out the drawing in this IEEE Spectrum article. It looks like another approach to the Microsoft 4th Generation data center (outdoor container park)! The article is good also --- although it is kind of a summary of what has gone on the last 6-12 months....nothing new.
Power Grid Found Susceptible. I'm a big fan of SmartGrids, but like anything else they need to be EXTREMELY careful with this. Security firm IOActive is offering the security lesson....maybe a few rants from Christopher Hoff would help as well.
Just to show I'm not a complete Cisco fan-boy.... Force10 announced some big iron today. They unveiled a new line of switches and routers "designed to improve the performance, management and cost effectiveness of virtualized data center and cloud computing environments." Pretty cool stuff from an initial quick glance.
As many of you know, I blog from Iowa and simply can NOT escape the stupid stereotype about farmers. I've worked on a few IT projects in the past that were for, or benefited farmers, and so I thought this was interesting..... it's a map showing broadband in america -- percentage of farmers with high speed internet.
March 19 announcement from Rackable: "The CloudRack C2 servers can run at 104 degrees inside the data center, and they offload power supply to the rack to reduce energy wasted in converting AC electricity from the wall to DC electricity used by the box to 1 percent"
I'm usually on the same page as Om Malik.... but have to disagree with him on this one. He thinks Cisco should buy Sun, not IBM.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Peak 10 Unveils Tampa Bay Data Center
On Friday Charlotte based data center operator Peak 10 announced the opening of its second world-class data center, located in Tampa, Florida. The 15,400 square foot facility will bring their total footprint to more than 30,000 square feet.
Check out the press release here.
"Like all Peak 10 facilities, the new Tampa data center is engineered with multiple levels of security, uninterruptible power, HVAC systems, fire suppression and around-the-clock monitoring and management. It is SAS70 Type II compliant and interconnected with Peak 10’s private network, which provides customers the advantage of highly available Internet access and the ability to leverage data centers in eight other markets in implementing disaster recovery solutions."
Check out the press release here.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Verari Article: "Greening the Internet"
Just a quick link to an article I liked about Verari Systems, maker of the FOREST data center container. It was on the Xconomy | San Diego site and is an interview with two execs from Verari. The article discusses gree technologis, efficiencies, financial aspects of containers and overall energy-saving approaches.
Check it out here.
Check it out here.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
AST-Global Data Center Container
Data Center Knowledge had an interesting article today on the AST-Global data center container, displayed at CeBIT. Does anyone know what the tie is between AST and IBM (i.e.: the IBM PMDC container is made by AST, or the AST container is made by IBM)?
I did a search for AST-Global, not being very familiar with them and found an interesting Power Point presentation by Pablo Fernandez of AST. Slide 53 is interesting... "The future is MOBILE" and then he lists how containers are better than traditional data centers: "Short term projects, disaster recovery, remote locations, hostile environments, space limitations and expensive real-estate".
Slide 55 goes on to talk about the "PMDC Data Center Park". This is an entire data center park, built with multi-PMDCs -- no building, just concrete slab. This of course made me think of the Microsoft 4th Generation data center concept from Michael Manos back in December last year.
Scalability and mobility, along with protection and potential efficiency gains are really making the case for data center containers. I never thought I would list 'mobility' as an attractive feature of a data center, but it is growing on me. After a phone call I had today discussing containers, I think I will sit down and really pour through the container offerings from IBM, HP, Sun, Dell, Rackable, Verari and others. It may not be the solution for every need or company, but I think (at this stage) there is definately more to it than what I am seeing.
I did a search for AST-Global, not being very familiar with them and found an interesting Power Point presentation by Pablo Fernandez of AST. Slide 53 is interesting... "The future is MOBILE" and then he lists how containers are better than traditional data centers: "Short term projects, disaster recovery, remote locations, hostile environments, space limitations and expensive real-estate".
Slide 55 goes on to talk about the "PMDC Data Center Park". This is an entire data center park, built with multi-PMDCs -- no building, just concrete slab. This of course made me think of the Microsoft 4th Generation data center concept from Michael Manos back in December last year.
Scalability and mobility, along with protection and potential efficiency gains are really making the case for data center containers. I never thought I would list 'mobility' as an attractive feature of a data center, but it is growing on me. After a phone call I had today discussing containers, I think I will sit down and really pour through the container offerings from IBM, HP, Sun, Dell, Rackable, Verari and others. It may not be the solution for every need or company, but I think (at this stage) there is definately more to it than what I am seeing.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Data Center Stocks
Remember the part about the economy getting worse before it gets better? Well.... the data center stock index I started back in October continues to set new lows. Today's value was $16.41. I also started tracking 4 colocation companies in a separate index; Equinix, Terremark, Savvis and Switch and Data. Here are my Google Spreadsheet charts for those indexes:
DataCenter Stock Index
Colocation Stock Index
Forbes reported today that Google and Cisco are being eyed as possible Dow candidates. Cisco is getting almost as good as Apple at creating a buz on the net. Eweek reports that Cisco is planning to unveil a new data center strategy on March 16. Much of the speculation was about their new servers, potentially equipped with VMWare software.
Speaking of creating a buzz.....I think this video at the Onion is perhaps the funniest one they have done in some time (and they do some funny stuff!).
Finally -- listen to the master investor for a good big picture on the economy and where we are going ; Warren Buffet talks on CNBC.
DataCenter Stock Index
Colocation Stock Index
Forbes reported today that Google and Cisco are being eyed as possible Dow candidates. Cisco is getting almost as good as Apple at creating a buz on the net. Eweek reports that Cisco is planning to unveil a new data center strategy on March 16. Much of the speculation was about their new servers, potentially equipped with VMWare software.
"The company would not disclose details of the March 16 announcements on Monday, but a spokeswoman acknowledged that the event would be related to the
speculation. Chief Executive John Chambers and other Cisco executives will
unveil new technology and partnerships, Cisco said."
Speaking of creating a buzz.....I think this video at the Onion is perhaps the funniest one they have done in some time (and they do some funny stuff!).
Finally -- listen to the master investor for a good big picture on the economy and where we are going ; Warren Buffet talks on CNBC.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Updated Blogroll
Since most of my blog activity lately is 'reading' them instead of posting to my own, I thought I would update my blogroll. Check it out on the right column a little ways down ----->
I also wanted to say Happy Friday with a video (below) I found on Steve Clayton's blog.
Absolutely hilarious!!
I also wanted to say Happy Friday with a video (below) I found on Steve Clayton's blog.
Absolutely hilarious!!
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Misc. Tech News - March 1, 2009
34 days and 20 hours left until the opening night of Major League Baseball!
Outside of the fun little newspaper generator mentioned above, I ran across a number of interesting stories this weekend....
- The Data Center Pulse Summit presentations and videos have been graciously posted on their site. There are a number of interesting things mentioned here. NetworkWorld also has a nice write-up of the Top 10 Industry Requests generated at the summit.
- Intel and Microsoft are flexing their muscle when it comes to innovation in the current recession. Microsoft recently had their annual TechFest event to showcase what Microsoft Research had been up to. Slide 13 shows the low powered processors we all heard about recently. Intel Research Laboratories have also been up to quite a bit lately. Wireless Power technology, numerous uses for RFID and robotics were displayed -- check out the full story here.
Intel and Samsung are going at it in the Solid-state Disk market. Check out this ComputerWorld article : Samsung's 256GB SSD Offers Capacity, Speed
Several weeks back the TED 2009 Conference was held -- if you haven't checked out the videos from that yet, I Highly recommend it. Also interesting at this conference was the launch of Singularity University - "Preparing Humanity for Accelerating Technological Change". With backers like Google, NASA and Ray Kurzweil, how can this NOT be cool!!
At the VMWorld Europe conference VMWare showed off its MVP (Mobile Virtualization Platform). Basically -- it would give you the ability to run multiple operating systems on your portable device. Sounds like some pretty cool stuff here.
Finally -- it is always fun to see creative help wanted ads : check this one out.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Security In the Cloud
Yesterday I watched a little bit of the Ustream of "Whose Cloud Is It Anyway" - a round table and meetup in Mountain View. The discussion, while interesting, was a little dry. I actually enjoyed tweets from Christofer Hoff and James Urquhart much more.
Today I ran across a presentation by Dan Kaminsky - a name I hear a lot (mainly on TWiT I believe). His presentation, below - is titled When Irresistible Forces Attack Security In The Cloud. The presentation covers security in cloud computing and has a number of interesting points:
The enterprise cloud play is the more interesting one to me. I have gotten over my disgust for the marketing hype frenzy by calling it the "cloud" (it also gives many magazines and blogs an avenue for pretend-creative article titles). I'm still looking for a good definition that is 'not' the same as the Internet, or an overall shift in computing architecture. Anyway....time to move on.
Now.... take the Kaminsky presentation and throw on a slew of acronyms provided by the government. Corporations have a number of laws, policies, audits, acts, trade secrets, terms of service, privacy and other things to worry about. The World Privacy Forum held this last week presents a very interesting report: "Privacy in the Clouds: Risks to Privacy and Confidentiality from Cloud Computing". I think the report drives home the point that there are many issues and things in cloud computing are still being hashed out. Some interesting findings include:
A Network World article discusses the IDC Cloud Computing Forum. Joseph Tobolski, director for cloud computing at Accenture states "Some people create a list of requirements for security in the cloud that they don't even have for their own data center". Well....maybe they need BETTER requirements for their own data center!! I personally don't think people worry "too much" about security in the cloud ; it is a legitimate concern that any responsible business should question. The good news is that Cloud providers have the chance to do security right, and provide a more secure environment than the small/medium business could have done for itself. The bad news: it's early yet, and that completely secure (if there is such a thing) environment is not built yet.
When Irresistable Forces Attack
Today I ran across a presentation by Dan Kaminsky - a name I hear a lot (mainly on TWiT I believe). His presentation, below - is titled When Irresistible Forces Attack Security In The Cloud. The presentation covers security in cloud computing and has a number of interesting points:
- "Uncomfortable Fact #6: Virtualization Not Actually Required For Cloud Compromise" -- slide 26
- Slide 30 -- three classes of private clouds: Fully private, outsourced private and non-secure (i.e.: Amazon's S3)
The enterprise cloud play is the more interesting one to me. I have gotten over my disgust for the marketing hype frenzy by calling it the "cloud" (it also gives many magazines and blogs an avenue for pretend-creative article titles). I'm still looking for a good definition that is 'not' the same as the Internet, or an overall shift in computing architecture. Anyway....time to move on.
Now.... take the Kaminsky presentation and throw on a slew of acronyms provided by the government. Corporations have a number of laws, policies, audits, acts, trade secrets, terms of service, privacy and other things to worry about. The World Privacy Forum held this last week presents a very interesting report: "Privacy in the Clouds: Risks to Privacy and Confidentiality from Cloud Computing". I think the report drives home the point that there are many issues and things in cloud computing are still being hashed out. Some interesting findings include:
- Finding: Cloud computing has significant implications for the privacy of personal information as well as for the confidentiality of business and governmental information.
- Finding: A user’s privacy and confidentiality risks vary significantly with the terms of service and privacy policy established by the cloud provider.
- Finding: For some types of information and some categories of cloud computing users, privacy and confidentiality rights, obligations, and status may change when a user discloses information to a cloud provider.
- Finding: Disclosure and remote storage may have adverse consequences for the legal status of or protections for personal or business information.
- Finding: The location of information in the cloud may have significant effects on the privacy and confidentiality protections of information and on the privacy obligations of those who process or store the information.
A Network World article discusses the IDC Cloud Computing Forum. Joseph Tobolski, director for cloud computing at Accenture states "Some people create a list of requirements for security in the cloud that they don't even have for their own data center". Well....maybe they need BETTER requirements for their own data center!! I personally don't think people worry "too much" about security in the cloud ; it is a legitimate concern that any responsible business should question. The good news is that Cloud providers have the chance to do security right, and provide a more secure environment than the small/medium business could have done for itself. The bad news: it's early yet, and that completely secure (if there is such a thing) environment is not built yet.
When Irresistable Forces Attack
Thursday, February 19, 2009
GreenTech and DataCenters - Part 4
I wasn't planning a part 4 to my GreenTech week, but as I mentioned, there is a LOT of Green news out recently. Here are just a few more goodies I ran across today:
The Uptime Institute released its Global Green 100 List today. Many familiar names in tech are on the list including all of the companies I mentioned in GreenTech Part 2.
GreenBiz.com notes that Green, Tech and GreenTech are on the rise in the FastCompany 50 List. Cisco managed the #5 spot on the 2009 list. Cisco has a number of videos I found interesting lately:
Check out this video from Google and GE : Plug Into the Smart Grid
An article from the Wall Street Journal Environmental Capitalism section was pretty interesting: Purdue Researchers Put Emissions On Google Earth. Of course any excuse for me to use Google Earth is a good one.
The Uptime Institute released its Global Green 100 List today. Many familiar names in tech are on the list including all of the companies I mentioned in GreenTech Part 2.
GreenBiz.com notes that Green, Tech and GreenTech are on the rise in the FastCompany 50 List. Cisco managed the #5 spot on the 2009 list. Cisco has a number of videos I found interesting lately:
- A new TechWise TV podcast is out and discusses Cisco EnergyWise
- John Chambers is 'the man'. This video at OpenZine is a talk he gave on the MIT campus and is long, but worth watching. If you don't watch the whole thing, do forward to about 44 minutes in where he answers a question -- I really like what he says here. He is an awesome speaker and as commented on the page with the video -- "John Chambers gets it" ; except for the comment John makes in the video about being a Red Sox fan. :)
- Another video: Rethinking Education for the 21st Century was posted on a Cisco blog.
Check out this video from Google and GE : Plug Into the Smart Grid
An article from the Wall Street Journal Environmental Capitalism section was pretty interesting: Purdue Researchers Put Emissions On Google Earth. Of course any excuse for me to use Google Earth is a good one.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
GreenTech and DataCenters - Part 3
For part 3 of my GreenTech week, I have a number of miscellaneous links. I'll keep posting Green links as I run across them, but the following items were pretty interesting.EWeek's 10 Things You Need to Know NOW About Green IT
Comprehensive (as in 45 page) report from Rackable and the BPM (Business Performance Management) Forum: IT Sustainability Imperatives in Internet and Ecommerce Business. I haven't had a chance to read 'all' of this yet, but it looks very good. They surveyed 275 professionals in December 2008 and January 2009 and also have perspectives from dialogs with prominent executives, thought leaders and industry influencers.
GigaOM's earth2tech reports that San Diego will Roll Out Smart Meters Mid-March
Article at CleanTechies: Distributed Energy Generation - the New Internet
Very interesting article at MIT Technology Review: Graphene for the Green Grid - Ultracapcitors that store more could help the grid run smoothly.
Canada's Advanced Network organization announces an initiative to lay foundation for a zero carbon economy.
I was looking for something to tie GRI standards to GreenTech, but instead found this piece on an ISO Standard for Assessing Energy Efficiency of New Buildings.
My list wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Green Grid. A new site design, white papers, tools and many other things make this site a must-read. The Data Center Facilities Pro blog has a nice write-up of the Green Grid Technical Forum held a few weeks back. Presentations from that forum are also posted on their site.
Monday, February 16, 2009
GreenTech and DataCenters - Part 2
Continuing where I left off yesterday with GreenTech..... today I'll cover what the big companies are up to with environmental sustainability, greentech, etc....
Cisco:
More still to come.... I am almost through my list of links. Success stories, green technologies and more on smart grids the rest of this week.
Cisco:
- Just a few short weeks back Cisco announced EnergyWise. I haven't had a chance to get 'really' familiar with the technology yet, but it seems pretty cool on the surface. A TMCnet blogger has his thoughts on the Cisco "energy tax" here. It's a Nortel favored argument, but I'll refer back to the video I blogged about here to tell you what I think about the energy tax criticism. I'm not saying EnergyWise is perfect or that you 'should' put your eggs in one basket, but come on..... SmartGrids have HUGE potential in 2009 and I think EnergyWise is in on the beginning of something great.
- Last Friday CNet had an article about "Cisco unveils Global blueprint for cities". Pretty cool stuff -- and it builds on Cisco's mission to become a more Global company.
- InformationWeek reports "IBM to Help Orange Data Center go Green". Partnership with IBM and Syracuse University.
- IBM Launches "Ready for IBM Energy & Environment" Validation for Business Partners.
- IBM Expands Efficiency Offerings. Announcement of a Strategic Carbon Management consulting service.
- IBM Brings Smart Meters to Malta. 5 year project to "design and deliver a nationwide smart utility implementation" to the nation of Malta.
- Google: A Utility Company. Interesting blog post about Google purchasing an abandoned paper mill in rural Finland.
- On Feb. 9th the Official google.org blog wrote about home electricity use and combining smart meters with easy access to energy information. This (to me) was Extremely interesting. More information on the Google PowerMeter and other items can be found here.
- The Microsoft "Innovating to Improve the Planet" site is a pretty good source to find out what they are up to in the green department.
- The Microsoft Dynamics team has been up some interesting things. Check out this video about the Dynamics Sustainability Dashboard on Channel 9.
More still to come.... I am almost through my list of links. Success stories, green technologies and more on smart grids the rest of this week.
GreenTech and DataCenters - Part 1
I have been absolutely inundated recently with stories about Green technology, environmental sustainability and the like. I don't want to turn this into a GreenTech blog, but obviously power, renewable energy and environmental sustainability are huge topics for the data center industry.
There are several items in the $787 Billion Economic Recovery Bill that would benefit renewable energy and GreenTech companies, including: $11 Billion for Smart Grids and $15 Billion in renewable energy tax incentives. Cnet's Green Tech also has a nice write-up on the Bill.
I have so many links piled up that I am going to spread them out over this week. Today I'll start with the site that got me thinking about all of this .... The Green and Virtual Data Center. It is an excellent site, and they also have a new book out. The list below is a mix of sites from their 'links' section, and links from my bookmarks that I found interesting
Greenly -- Exploring Greenovation 24/7/365
CarbonFootprint.com
Carbon dioxide emissions calculator
Cassatt Power Savings Calculator
This one is a bit much (IMO), but.... Making Web Sites Green
EPA Tools and calculators
How much does Carbon Offsetting cost?
Planning for Energy Requirements: Dell's Data Center Capacity Planner
The Uptime Institute will host a 2009 IT Symposium: Lean, Clean and Green, April 13 - 16 in New York. Should be interesting.....
Up Next: What the big guys are up to: Cisco, Microsoft, Google, HP, IBM and others
There are several items in the $787 Billion Economic Recovery Bill that would benefit renewable energy and GreenTech companies, including: $11 Billion for Smart Grids and $15 Billion in renewable energy tax incentives. Cnet's Green Tech also has a nice write-up on the Bill.
I have so many links piled up that I am going to spread them out over this week. Today I'll start with the site that got me thinking about all of this .... The Green and Virtual Data Center. It is an excellent site, and they also have a new book out. The list below is a mix of sites from their 'links' section, and links from my bookmarks that I found interesting
Greenly -- Exploring Greenovation 24/7/365
CarbonFootprint.com
Carbon dioxide emissions calculator
Cassatt Power Savings Calculator
This one is a bit much (IMO), but.... Making Web Sites Green
EPA Tools and calculators
How much does Carbon Offsetting cost?
Planning for Energy Requirements: Dell's Data Center Capacity Planner
The Uptime Institute will host a 2009 IT Symposium: Lean, Clean and Green, April 13 - 16 in New York. Should be interesting.....
Up Next: What the big guys are up to: Cisco, Microsoft, Google, HP, IBM and others
Monday, February 09, 2009
Cisco News and Tweets
I need to work on my tweets. I read so many tweets that I forget to write some myself! Cisco is a company that really gets the power of Twitter. Many moons ago I thought Twitter was pretty silly. I imagine others did as well. It has evolved though, and is now thought by many to be a truly valuable tool in the social web arsenal.
Although Cisco's CTO Padmasree has more followers - my favorite is still Douglas Gourlay. With only 4,493 followers to catch her, I'm sure he'll have no problem. :)
Cicso news abounds recently ; here are the items I found interesting:
P.S.: MY Twitter is http://twitter.com/johnrath
Although Cisco's CTO Padmasree has more followers - my favorite is still Douglas Gourlay. With only 4,493 followers to catch her, I'm sure he'll have no problem. :)
Cicso news abounds recently ; here are the items I found interesting:
- Alan Cohen at Cisco discusses the Twiterati
- Data Center CEO Kevin Smith discusses pioneering data center energy management with Cisco EngergyWise. I think it will be really interesting to get some case studies of data centers using EnergyWise and see how it has helped them.
- Cisco powers the first 4G network in Moscow. I don't follow WiMAX as much as I would like to, but it is pretty interesting technology. "Cisco is providing Scartel with optical transport based on DWDM, a high-speed IP MPLS data network and data centre technologies designed to support high-quality video distribution. The network was designed to support the heavy traffic loads required of Scartel's network while offering an economical solution."
- Seeking Alpha has an interesting article about potential acquisitions for Cisco. I've always wondered about Riverbed. I really like what I have seen and read about their products, but I think they enjoy going up against Cisco and have huge potential on their own.
- Last but certainly not least: Cisco will hold a webcast this Thursday to "unveil a new Global Initiative". Should be interesting.....
P.S.: MY Twitter is http://twitter.com/johnrath
Processor Article: Colo or Managed Services?
I was interviewed a few weeks back for Processor magazine and the article came out last Friday. It discusses decision points and thoughts when deciding on whether colocation or managed hosting is right for your data center.
Check out the article here.
Check out the article here.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Intel's Avalanche Photodetector
I don't know if I would have guess this one, but Intel, as apparent to this site / press release I found is set to be a force in the optical switching market. Last December they announced their advancements in Silicon Photonics with the Avalanche Photodetector (APD).
"Intel Labs researchers have made another advance in the field of Silicon Photonics by achieving world-record performance using a silicon-based Avalanche Photodetector (APD) that could lower costs and improve performance as compared to commercially available optical devices. "I ran across this story here, but then read more at the official Intel page for Silicon Photonics. Another nice blog post on a 200 Gbps silicon photonic integrated chip can be found here.
HP POD Container Video
I ran across this HP video for a second time, and so I thought that surely meant I should put it on the blog. It is Wade Vinson, HP's Power and Cooling Strategist and HP POD Architect.
It's a nice look at the POD (Performance-Optimized Data center) from an engineering stand point.
Also -- Don't forget the video Data Center Knowledge took late last year at the Gartner conference.
It's a nice look at the POD (Performance-Optimized Data center) from an engineering stand point.
Also -- Don't forget the video Data Center Knowledge took late last year at the Gartner conference.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
IBM Smart Grid
Just a quick link to a really nice article over at Cleantech. It's about the $819 Billion Stimulus plan that was passed and how there is a lot of money included for smart grid technology. Cleantech interviewed Drew Clark, Director of Strategy for IBM's Venture Capital Group.
One of the companies mentioned, SynapSense makes some pretty cool products for the data center. They were honored by the DOE last fall for their innovative approach to saving energy in the data center. They have a LiveImaging product that provides thermal, pressure and humidity mapping using 3D, real-time data at multiple levels of your data center. SyanpSense will be at the Green Grid Technical Forum in San Jose Feb. 3 - 4.
Check out the Cleantech article here.
One of the companies mentioned, SynapSense makes some pretty cool products for the data center. They were honored by the DOE last fall for their innovative approach to saving energy in the data center. They have a LiveImaging product that provides thermal, pressure and humidity mapping using 3D, real-time data at multiple levels of your data center. SyanpSense will be at the Green Grid Technical Forum in San Jose Feb. 3 - 4.
Check out the Cleantech article here.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Wednesday Links
Lots of little things that I thought I would quickly blog about..... data center news has been pretty heavy lately and I'm just catching up.
- My data center stock index was up today almost a whole dollar from the previous day. I started it back in October, so I thought I would finally make a graph just to show the ride it has taken since then. It closed today at $19.48.
- This is a month old now, but I still found it pretty interesting -- "Why IT Colocation Centers will see a boom in 2009 despite the Macroeconomy".
- Anyone looking for a project plan for building a data center -- here is a good read, plus a benchmark against one of the best: Digital Realty Trust.
- I was pretty bummed about the news that Microsoft is postponing the West Des Moines data center. However.... it is just 'postponing' it, not scrapping it. I guess we'll just have to be patient.
- I've been reading and watching the news about Cisco EnergyWise .... more on that in a separate post. Meanwhile, check out this good article from IBM's Forward View: "ROI: Extending the Benefits of Energy Efficiency"
- Finally -- I thought I would share a bit of humor -- as a fan of The Matrix trilogy, I thought this video was pretty funny: The Matrix Runs on Windows
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Colocation Crisis?
CIO Magazine blogger Michael Bullock proclaims "Data Center Colocation Crisis: Act Now or Pay Later". While I liked his article, I'm not sure I totally agree. Now....I don't have access to all of the analyst opinions and statistics that might sway me to think differently, but....
The one thing that I do certainly agree with is that if a company is looking for colo space, NOW is the time to get it. He mentions rapidly rising prices in England and New York and that the 3 things driving the coming storm are shrinking supply, increased demand, and infrastructure limitations. He continues with some nice pointers if a company wants to build their own facility and hits a little bit on my favorite topic: Data Center site selection.
Check out the article here
The one thing that I do certainly agree with is that if a company is looking for colo space, NOW is the time to get it. He mentions rapidly rising prices in England and New York and that the 3 things driving the coming storm are shrinking supply, increased demand, and infrastructure limitations. He continues with some nice pointers if a company wants to build their own facility and hits a little bit on my favorite topic: Data Center site selection.
Check out the article here
Omaha Wind Power
Just a quick link to a story about the Omaha Public Power District announcing a new initiative aimed at increasing renewable energy. The goal is to have 10% of its electricity produced by renewable energy sources by the year 2020 - mostly wind power. The green initiatives by OPPD and Nebraska will help to lure in companies, such as Yahoo, who is building a data center in La Vista, NE.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Cisco Cisco Cisco!
Cisco Cisco Cisco!!! ....said in the tone of a Brady Bunch "Marsha Marsha Marsha!"
Cisco certainly has had the spot light for some time now and certainly shows no sign of slowing down. Many have stated that economic recessions will foster tremendous innovation, and I think John Chambers got a head start on that in 2008. 2009 is full-steam ahead. They recently announced that they were venturing outside of their core market, by entering the server market (NY Times | SF Gate).
I honestly don't know what to think of the announcement just yet. I don't think IBM, HP and Dell will be as upset as some are making it out to be, but it will be interesting to watch. Chambers mentioned at C-Scape that their 2009 acquisitions will be scrutinized a little more and there may not be as many executed as in years past. With $26 Billion to spend, there are plenty of options:
1. EMC - I just don't think so. It's been analyzed and blogged to death, but I just don't see it.
2. Sun Microsystems? -- Maybe; but if I had to guess, I don't think that would happen.
3. Netapp? possibly. MarketCap is $4.49B and if Cisco makes 4 or 5 acquisitions this year that could be a good fit. Very solid company, large customer base (many Internet companies as well), and Cisco has pushed storage networking technologies for some time.
4. Rackable? With a MarketCap of $116.57 Million it is pocket change for Cisco, but could work. In the Unified Computing blog post Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrier talks about eliminating "manual integration" and I wonder containers are in the picture somewhere. Purchasing Rackable would give Cisco the commodity hardware for their servers and the ICECube to package their servers, storage and network gear into.
Padmasree mentions "open standards" a few times. I wonder if we'll see some announcement with Cisco and Eucalyptus - the open source cloud computing solution. I would hypothesize about a cloud computing company acquisition, but there are too many think of at this late hour. To me, the smart move would be to buy a company that specializes in cloud computing / virtualization security.
Padmasree Warrior may have a new job soon though -- as she is one of two candidates for the first U.S. CTO position.
Cisco certainly has had the spot light for some time now and certainly shows no sign of slowing down. Many have stated that economic recessions will foster tremendous innovation, and I think John Chambers got a head start on that in 2008. 2009 is full-steam ahead. They recently announced that they were venturing outside of their core market, by entering the server market (NY Times | SF Gate).
I honestly don't know what to think of the announcement just yet. I don't think IBM, HP and Dell will be as upset as some are making it out to be, but it will be interesting to watch. Chambers mentioned at C-Scape that their 2009 acquisitions will be scrutinized a little more and there may not be as many executed as in years past. With $26 Billion to spend, there are plenty of options:
1. EMC - I just don't think so. It's been analyzed and blogged to death, but I just don't see it.
2. Sun Microsystems? -- Maybe; but if I had to guess, I don't think that would happen.
3. Netapp? possibly. MarketCap is $4.49B and if Cisco makes 4 or 5 acquisitions this year that could be a good fit. Very solid company, large customer base (many Internet companies as well), and Cisco has pushed storage networking technologies for some time.
4. Rackable? With a MarketCap of $116.57 Million it is pocket change for Cisco, but could work. In the Unified Computing blog post Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrier talks about eliminating "manual integration" and I wonder containers are in the picture somewhere. Purchasing Rackable would give Cisco the commodity hardware for their servers and the ICECube to package their servers, storage and network gear into.
Padmasree mentions "open standards" a few times. I wonder if we'll see some announcement with Cisco and Eucalyptus - the open source cloud computing solution. I would hypothesize about a cloud computing company acquisition, but there are too many think of at this late hour. To me, the smart move would be to buy a company that specializes in cloud computing / virtualization security.
Padmasree Warrior may have a new job soon though -- as she is one of two candidates for the first U.S. CTO position.
Monday, January 19, 2009
GreenTech 2009
I didn't make any predictions for 2009, but a some what obvious one is that renewable energy sources and Green technology for the data center should certainly have a good year. I have a number of items I have been saving up for GreenTech and the data center that I found to be pretty interesting:
- This quick announcement should impact data centers in 2009: ASHRAE and an alphabet soup of other groups are forming a consortium to advise the DOE on high-performance building issues.
- Treehugger.com always has good articles -- just too much for me to keep up with. They reported last week on a Yale Environment 360 opinion piece about the US as a renewable energy world leader.
- Treehugger.com : 76% of Federal renewable energy support went to Ethanol in 2007.
- There was an interesting article about pressure in gas pipe lines to power London. A UK startup works with National Grid to generate 20 MW using 'geo-pressure' by 2010.
- Last Wednesday it was announced that the DOE invested $6 Million to address the technical challenges of wind development and market acceptance barriers.
- This weekend Intel unveiled its first solar electric installation in New Mexico. They hope the "array will demonstrate the potential to power such things as data centers." There was also a mention of containerized data centers:
"He also said experiments will be done under the solar array with containerized data centers, in which computers are racked inside a tractor-trailer rig-size container. For example, a filmmaker might want to have a computer graphics system on site during a shoot, Miner said."
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Containers, The Economy and Telecom
OK-- bad title maybe, but I wanted to avoid the "Tuesday Links" vagueness.
Containers -- for anyone that has followed this blog for a while knows, I am fascinated by containers. Initially I just couldn't figure it out, but through Sun, Rackable and Michael Manos I am fully on board now. Although..... now I am racking my brain for the non Microsoft / Fortune 200 idea that makes the container solution applicable to the rest of us. More on that later.
The video that Data Center Knowledge posted last week was really excellent. I watched the full hour and appreciated the knowledge and insight provided. My highlights/comments:
The Economy -- All eyes are on the economy now days and President-elect Obama's plans in the making. I personally think the data center industry is going to pull through the recession just fine and GreenTech within data centers should really blossom in 2009. I ran across a video from Financial Times that I thought was interesting; it compares the worst bear markets in history and how they were punctuated by rallies that made a lot of money for those lucky enough to time them correctly. Global Crossing also had an interesting blog post recently about Stimulating Ideas - commentary about telecom investment ideas from Paul Kouroupas. There was also a nice story early last week in the New York Times about Venture Capitalists and how innovation will continue to drive the technology industry out of the recession. The last paragraph is especially interesting:
Telecom -- Level3 is off to a good start in 2009. Rob Powell at the Telecom Ramblings blog speculates why they have been doing so well. Fourth quarter and full year 2008 results are set to be released on February 11th. If my math is correct 4 VPs and the CEO of Level3 sold 23,265 shares January 5th.
Containers -- for anyone that has followed this blog for a while knows, I am fascinated by containers. Initially I just couldn't figure it out, but through Sun, Rackable and Michael Manos I am fully on board now. Although..... now I am racking my brain for the non Microsoft / Fortune 200 idea that makes the container solution applicable to the rest of us. More on that later.
The video that Data Center Knowledge posted last week was really excellent. I watched the full hour and appreciated the knowledge and insight provided. My highlights/comments:
- It was interesting to see some new things come into the site selection and data center equation: jurisdiction for placing containers and the classification of the space. Daniel Costello from Microsoft noted that they were able to classify theirs as "unoccupied spaces".
- Focus can shift quickly to container solutions for the rest of the infrastructure as well -- what about the emergency need to ship a container somewhere and have an equally quickly deployed power solution available? (i.e.: Active Power)
- The one thing that would have been hilarious (to me) for an audience member to ask is what the panel thought about putting containers on cargo ships. :)
The Economy -- All eyes are on the economy now days and President-elect Obama's plans in the making. I personally think the data center industry is going to pull through the recession just fine and GreenTech within data centers should really blossom in 2009. I ran across a video from Financial Times that I thought was interesting; it compares the worst bear markets in history and how they were punctuated by rallies that made a lot of money for those lucky enough to time them correctly. Global Crossing also had an interesting blog post recently about Stimulating Ideas - commentary about telecom investment ideas from Paul Kouroupas. There was also a nice story early last week in the New York Times about Venture Capitalists and how innovation will continue to drive the technology industry out of the recession. The last paragraph is especially interesting:
“Cisco was founded two weeks before a stock market crash. Oracle was founded during the Reagan recession,” Mr. Holland said. “In bad times, that’s when the best opportunities come up."
Telecom -- Level3 is off to a good start in 2009. Rob Powell at the Telecom Ramblings blog speculates why they have been doing so well. Fourth quarter and full year 2008 results are set to be released on February 11th. If my math is correct 4 VPs and the CEO of Level3 sold 23,265 shares January 5th.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
January Cloud Report
I promised myself I wasn't going to make any more blog posts about cloud computing. Hopefully my New Years resolutions will last longer.
I really don't want to get into the topic too deeply, but it is the cause for me not making any blog posts most of this past week! I have been too busy reading other blogs and thoughts & videos on clouds!
Here is what I do believe on the topic:
Anyway .... I really don't want to offer anymore commentary; because what I have been so busy reading the past few days is pretty interesting to follow. Here is the path I took:
I really don't want to get into the topic too deeply, but it is the cause for me not making any blog posts most of this past week! I have been too busy reading other blogs and thoughts & videos on clouds!
Here is what I do believe on the topic:
- Cloud Computing is still around 60+ percent marketing hype.
- I believe about 60+ percent of the article Chuck Goolsbee wrote on clouds.
- I think 2008 over-hyped the cloud, but 2009 and the economy have a chance to filter out the fluff and leave the companies and technologies that truly have a chance to make a difference.
- I believe the post from Irving Wladawsky-Berger is (still) a very good definition/discussion of cloud computing.
- I think the security aspect of virtualization and cloud computing needs some serious attention (i.e.: well.... i.e. most everything Christofer Hoff points out)
Anyway .... I really don't want to offer anymore commentary; because what I have been so busy reading the past few days is pretty interesting to follow. Here is the path I took:
- GoGrid Blog -- CloudCenters
- Michael Sheehan's response to the Chuck Goolsbee article on SearchDataCenter.com
- Silicon Alley Insider: once again proving that 'Cloud' and 'Internet' are synonymous.
- The Wikipedia page for Cloud Computing: proving that it is an amazingly broad concept.
- Thinking out Cloud: commentary from Geva Perry on appropriate use and analysis of CapEx and OpEx in infrastructure comparisons. I really liked this one.
- James Urqhart -- further commentary on Amazon AWS, GoGrid and IaaS.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
2008 Data Center Statistics
A lot of people reference statistics this time of year. Many will cite Tier1, Forrester, or Gartner...... me; I'll cite the only thing I have access to: Google. Google Zeitgeist is always interesting to look at and is usually a pretty good indication of what happened throughout the year. Here are some other random statistics that pretty much speak for themselves. Meaningful? Maybe. Maybe not.
Enjoy.
First - the "data center" vs. "data centre" in Google Trends (shows a trend of how often the term is searched in Google).
Next - Google and Microsoft data center projects were both big 2008 stories; here is how they compared in Google Trends:
Proof that Google has ALL of our personal search data, they have at least let us look into the aggregated data with Google Insight for Search. For instance, here is the chart and data for the category of "networking equipment" -- showing that 'cisco', 'router', and 'wireless' were the top 3 search terms in that category.
An Insight search for the term "data center" shows that Pakistan, India and Singapore are searching for that term the most. Equally interesting is the data for just the U.S. that shows top regional interest for "data center" coming from South Dakota!
Finally - here is a look at Equinix, Savvis and Terremark in 2008 U.S. Web search Volume.
Enjoy.
First - the "data center" vs. "data centre" in Google Trends (shows a trend of how often the term is searched in Google).
Next - Google and Microsoft data center projects were both big 2008 stories; here is how they compared in Google Trends:
Proof that Google has ALL of our personal search data, they have at least let us look into the aggregated data with Google Insight for Search. For instance, here is the chart and data for the category of "networking equipment" -- showing that 'cisco', 'router', and 'wireless' were the top 3 search terms in that category.
An Insight search for the term "data center" shows that Pakistan, India and Singapore are searching for that term the most. Equally interesting is the data for just the U.S. that shows top regional interest for "data center" coming from South Dakota!
Finally - here is a look at Equinix, Savvis and Terremark in 2008 U.S. Web search Volume.
One To Watch: Digital Realty Trust
Raymond James' financial advisors has released their 2009 "Analysts' Best Picks". These 15 stocks are expected to produce superior overall results during the upcoming year. Digital Realty Trust made the list for 2009 and I personally agree that they should have a pretty good year. I think it might be a slow start however with the current economy and then really shine later in 2009.
Check out the press release here, and an article with the stocks listed here.
A look at 2008 for Digital Realty Trust (DLR) is below.
Check out the press release here, and an article with the stocks listed here.
A look at 2008 for Digital Realty Trust (DLR) is below.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008 Review
I feel somewhat obligated to do an end of the year post. It's in fashion, it's that reflective time of year, and well....why not. I've been saving up a bunch of items, so here we go.....
First - there have been any number of '2008 review' articles and blog posts, but here are some of my favorite year-end stories:
The big story of the year (for me anyway) was the Iowa floods in June. I witnessed a lot during those few weeks/months and was very fortunate to not be directly affected. I saw both good and bad business continuity plans being executed and came out with a number of very valuable lessons learned.
I am a big picture person. I like to see the 10,000 foot view and then analyze the heck out of it to the associated impacts, outcomes and possibilities. A short while back I ran across a report from the National Intelligence Council titled Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World. Although I didn't read the entire 120 pages, here are some things that stood out to me:
In October I started tracking data center stocks a little closer. I created a Google spreadsheet and used the capitalization-weighted method to make an index of the stocks I chose to track. The stocks are all data center industry companies and I post regular updates for what the price is as often as I can. It started in October at $23.13 and closed today at $19.63
I have a few million feeds in my Bloglines account. I removed a couple dozen the other day and need to work on prioritizing what I read in there. My favorite new blogs that I am reading are:
This blog had a pretty good year overall....the biggest problem is just finding the time to sit down and write. Coverage of the Michael Manos speech at the Spring Data Center World conference was by far the most read post of the year. Much of this was due to a link from the popular blog by James Hamilton. I was happy to see that my Data Center Site Selection white paper from 2007 had the second highest number of visits. The top states that visited my blog (in order) were California, Iowa, New York, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
As many of you know, I live in Iowa and am a big advocate of the upper Midwest. Iowa had a lot of activity in 2008 with the Google data center in Council Bluffs, the Microsoft West Des Moines announcement and TEAM Companies making several announcements (opening Madison data center and breaking ground in Des Moines).
On to 2009!!
Data Center Containers were a huge story in 2008 and I think that will continue in 2009. I saw the Sun Blackbox again this year, and the Rackable Icecube at Data Center World. I have a number of posts in mind to review and analyze containers, but more on that later...
A few blog posts back I mentioned that video was going to be the killer app. While this is not any big revelation I realize, I think it has been a gradual thing that has many side affects and will continue to grow rapidly in 2009. I've read things about Cisco really attacking the home entertainment market, YouTube , Hulu , Joost , Vimeo and others had great years, and the infrastructure market to support video distribution is growing. The CDN market (I believe) is set to have a great 2009 and we may see some M&A action here. Video podcasts (or what ever you want to call them) are growing in number as well. Some of my regulars include:
Happy New Year!!!
First - there have been any number of '2008 review' articles and blog posts, but here are some of my favorite year-end stories:
- MIT Technology Review: The year in Computing
- CIO Magazine: The Top 10 Cisco Stories of 2008
- Seeking Alpha: What's Next for the Colocation Sector?
- Data Center Knowledge - Top 10 Stories of 2008
The big story of the year (for me anyway) was the Iowa floods in June. I witnessed a lot during those few weeks/months and was very fortunate to not be directly affected. I saw both good and bad business continuity plans being executed and came out with a number of very valuable lessons learned.
I am a big picture person. I like to see the 10,000 foot view and then analyze the heck out of it to the associated impacts, outcomes and possibilities. A short while back I ran across a report from the National Intelligence Council titled Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World. Although I didn't read the entire 120 pages, here are some things that stood out to me:
- Page 33: ".... nine factors can contribute to a modern National Innovation System: fluidity of capital, flexibility of the labor pool, government receptivity to business, information communication technologies, private sector development infrastructure, legal systems to protect intellectual property rights, available scientific and human captial, marketing skills, and cultural propensity to encourage creativity."
- Page 40 has a an interesting map showing world population by age range, in 2005 and 2025.
- Page 63 has a chart breaking down likely energy sources (coal, gas, hydro, oil, nuclear, biomass, others) from 1980 to 2025.
In October I started tracking data center stocks a little closer. I created a Google spreadsheet and used the capitalization-weighted method to make an index of the stocks I chose to track. The stocks are all data center industry companies and I post regular updates for what the price is as often as I can. It started in October at $23.13 and closed today at $19.63
I have a few million feeds in my Bloglines account. I removed a couple dozen the other day and need to work on prioritizing what I read in there. My favorite new blogs that I am reading are:
- Stevey Clayton : Geek in Disguise
- John Gannon - Yet Another VC Blog
- Errata Security
- Microsoft Data Centers
- Gianpaolo's blog
This blog had a pretty good year overall....the biggest problem is just finding the time to sit down and write. Coverage of the Michael Manos speech at the Spring Data Center World conference was by far the most read post of the year. Much of this was due to a link from the popular blog by James Hamilton. I was happy to see that my Data Center Site Selection white paper from 2007 had the second highest number of visits. The top states that visited my blog (in order) were California, Iowa, New York, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
As many of you know, I live in Iowa and am a big advocate of the upper Midwest. Iowa had a lot of activity in 2008 with the Google data center in Council Bluffs, the Microsoft West Des Moines announcement and TEAM Companies making several announcements (opening Madison data center and breaking ground in Des Moines).
On to 2009!!
Data Center Containers were a huge story in 2008 and I think that will continue in 2009. I saw the Sun Blackbox again this year, and the Rackable Icecube at Data Center World. I have a number of posts in mind to review and analyze containers, but more on that later...
A few blog posts back I mentioned that video was going to be the killer app. While this is not any big revelation I realize, I think it has been a gradual thing that has many side affects and will continue to grow rapidly in 2009. I've read things about Cisco really attacking the home entertainment market, YouTube , Hulu , Joost , Vimeo and others had great years, and the infrastructure market to support video distribution is growing. The CDN market (I believe) is set to have a great 2009 and we may see some M&A action here. Video podcasts (or what ever you want to call them) are growing in number as well. Some of my regulars include:
- Cisco TechwiseTV
- TED Talks
- Google Tech Talks
- Hak5
Happy New Year!!!
Inspiration is for amateurs ; the rest of us just show up and get to work.
-Chuck Close
-Chuck Close
Saturday, December 27, 2008
HP POD Presentation
Just a quick link to a presentation I ran across on the HP POD (Performance-Optimized Data Center). For some reason I always forget that they entered the container market and that it is a decent solution. As it seems to be a blogger reqirement, I am working on an end of the year blog post and you can bet containers are a big part of it.
The PDF is from Eva Beck from EMEA Hewlett Packard. Check it out here.
The PDF is from Eva Beck from EMEA Hewlett Packard. Check it out here.
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