Notes from the Consultant’s Jungle

We’ve discussed the topic of data center energy management in numerous posts, and we’ve talked about a Green Data Center Maturity Model.  If the topic of energy efficiency in the data center is of interest to you (and it should be) I’d like to recommend an excellent resource for you.
Cisco is conducting a webinar next [...]

[Read more →]

So many discussions with prospective Clients begin with the subject of data center tier ratings.  Many companies are struggling with data center facilities that no longer adequately serve their Business, and are seeking a path toward better scalability, availability, security, and lower cost of ownership.
In the mid-market segment, while there are exceptions to the [...]

[Read more →]

In a recent interview with CIO Insight, Kenneth Brill of the Uptime Institute posits that the growth of demand for data processing is likely to cause enterprises to repeat data center construction projects every four to eight years. What?! Do it again?

[Read more →]

I’ve written before about how the various aspects of our lives drive us to use multiple online personas, and that this is a shortcoming of social networking sites today. What I’m referring to here is that we all wear multiple “skins,” and to represent these personas online one needs separate profiles on separate social networking [...]

[Read more →]

We’ve become fairly comfortable with the structure of our IT organizations, but new trends in technology product development are increasingly challenging these traditional models.
In the traditional (i.e., over the past 10 years or so) IT organization we have roughly aligned the organizational chart with a logical stack corresponding to our data processing footprint. We [...]

[Read more →]

Over the past year, the European Commission has been sponsoring the development of a Data Center Code of Conduct to address the increasing energy consumption, environmental, economic and supply security concerns of the data center community.  If you’d like to read it for yourself, it can be found here.
This is an interesting endeavor, especially with [...]

[Read more →]

The Internet is going mobile. ‘Big news, right? Well, with the open-access provisions attached to the auction of the 700 MHz spectrum, the continued success of open-source public VoIP applications, and open platforms such as Android and OpenMoko, things are really accelerating.
The auction of the 700 MHz spectrum comes with the requirement that the winning [...]

[Read more →]

I was recently asked a question about how cool the cold aisle should be in a data center using hot/cold aisles to manage temperature.
This question is difficult to answer without other background information. I’ve seen specifications reference ASHRAE guidelines, Uptime Institute recommendations, and so on. For me, TIA-942 (which is the basis for the international [...]

[Read more →]

 
Most of the enterprises that we encounter through the service of our practice have top-notch Information Security teams.  The basic existence of a security team in the organization is evidence that the CIO recognizes and appreciates the enormous risk exposure and potential loss to the business that can result from information security breaches, and has [...]

[Read more →]