Gartner’s Top Strategic Technologies for 2010 – IT for Green and Reshaping the Data Center make the list

October 20, 2009 Dave Ohara

ZDnet has an article on Gartner’s top 2010 strategic tech list.

Gartner: Cloud computing, analytics top 2010 strategic tech list

Posted by Larry Dignan @ 5:46 am

Gartner unveiled its top 10 strategic technology list for 2010. Unified communications, servers and specialized systems are out. Client computing, data center do-overs, flash memory and mobile applications are in.

The list, presented Tuesday at the Gartner Symposium in Orlando, by analysts David Cearley and Carl Claunch looks like this:

For the data center crowd, look at #5 “Reshaping the Data Center” From Gartner’s press release.

Reshaping the Data Center. In the past, design principles for data centers were simple: Figure out what you have, estimate growth for 15 to 20 years, then build to suit. Newly-built data centers often opened with huge areas of white floor space, fully powered and backed by a uninterruptible power supply (UPS), water-and air-cooled and mostly empty. However, costs are actually lower if enterprises adopt a pod-based approach to data center construction and expansion. If 9,000 square feet is expected to be needed during the life of a data center, then design the site to support it, but only build what’s needed for five to seven years. Cutting operating expenses, which are a nontrivial part of the overall IT spend for most clients, frees up money to apply to other projects or investments either in IT or in the business itself.

Green IT has morphed into IT for Green which aligns well with Intel’s latest IT is the 2% to save the other 98% of carbon footprint.

Gartner’s topic of advanced analytics fits with why I started discussing modeling on this blog.

Advanced Analytics. Optimization and simulation is using analytical tools and models to maximize business process and decision effectiveness by examining alternative outcomes and scenarios, before, during and after process implementation and execution. This can be viewed as a third step in supporting operational business decisions. Fixed rules and prepared policies gave way to more informed decisions powered by the right information delivered at the right time, whether through customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other applications. The new step is to provide simulation, prediction, optimization and other analytics, not simply information, to empower even more decision flexibility at the time and place of every business process action. The new step looks into the future, predicting what can or will happen.

The focus on flash memory is interesting vs last year they had server hardware.

Flash Memory. Flash memory is not new, but it is moving up to a new tier in the storage echelon. Flash memory is a semiconductor memory device, familiar from its use in USB memory sticks and digital camera cards. It is much faster than rotating disk, but considerably more expensive, however this differential is shrinking. At the rate of price declines, the technology will enjoy more than a 100 percent compound annual growth rate during the new few years and become strategic in many IT areas including consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. In addition, it offers a new layer of the storage hierarchy in servers and client computers that has key advantages including space, heat, performance and ruggedness.

Collaboration has been replaced by Social Computing.

Social Computing. Workers do not want two distinct environments to support their work – one for their own work products (whether personal or group) and another for accessing “external” information. Enterprises must focus both on use of social software and social media in the enterprise and participation and integration with externally facing enterprise-sponsored and public communities. Do not ignore the role of the social profile to bring communities together.

After going through the Gartner list, I realized their list is a pretty close match to what I blog about to discuss green data centers. I had already registered for the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas on Dec 1 – 4, and it will be interesting to learn how Gartner aligns with approaches that I see working for others.

Cloud Computing PR disaster - Failure Sinks the Server in Microsoft/Danger’s Client/Server Model – Client Data unrecoverable

October 11, 2009 Dave Ohara

In spite of all the effort spent on disaster recovery and redundancy it is amazing how fragile IT systems can be. The latest disaster is T-Moblie sidekick, built on the Microsoft acquired Danger client/server platform.

If T-Mobile was smart they’d offer free account transfers to Google Android or RIM smartphones for anyone who wants to dump their sidekick device. How you handle the outages to survive is the sign of maturity. One example of handling a crisis situation is Johnson and Johnson’s Tylenol crisis.

"The PR industry has an important role to play in helping companies identify and manage risks that could damage their reputation." Nick Purdom of PR Week

THE TYLENOL CRISIS, 1982

Johnson and Johnson survived based on its credo defined in 1943. We’ll see if T-Mobile, Sidekick or Microsoft Danger will survive.

The Danger platform is a client/server model.

view PDF »

A powerful client-server architecture

IP-based communications allow you to develop powerful web
services, real-time information, and networked applications.

Guaranteed delivery of data
Powerful HTTP library
Device-to-device communications
Asynchronous network communications
REST, XML/RPC and SOAP
All application data is backed up to the Danger Service
Encryption and authentication are managed by Danger

It will be interesting to know if we will ever know the full story. One speculation was the data loss was caused by an attempted upgrade to the storage array without backing up first.

In the Danger case, it appears from initial speculation that the data was lost because they attempted to upgrade a storage array without backing it up first. Here is a case of smart and rational people who do this for a living at one of the best companies in the world, and they didn't even bother making a backup ¿ so what hope do we have? Relying on the cloud as a backup didn't work, because somebody forgot to backup the backup.

T-Mobile has started to manage the PR nightmare.

Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.

Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT

T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption.

We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos - that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.

In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers' personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.

We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.

Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.

Mike Manos and Olivier Sanche conversation, Data Center Design is a popularity contest?

October 11, 2009 Dave Ohara

Mike Manos has a post discussing a conversation he had with Olivier Sanche, Apple’s Global DC Director.

Opinion Polls and the End of Times

October 9, 2009 by mmanos

I recently had an interesting e-mail exchange with Olivier Sanche the chief DC architect at Apple. As you probably know this is a very small industry and Olivier and I have enjoyed a long professional working relationship. He remarked that we are approaching the end of times, as we were both nominated for a Data Center Dream Team in an industry magazine. I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

We we were referring to the poll being conducted by the Web Hosting Industry Review (WHIR) who is conducting a survey to see who would represent the Industry’s best Data Center Dream Team. While its a definite honor to be mentioned, it definitely signals the end of times.

To me the phrase “Dream Team” conjures images of people with a long list of accomplishments. Its a bit strange to think of the Data Center Industry at large as having made significant movement forward. There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in the last few years, and I do definitely believe we are at the start of something truly revolutionary in our industry, I think its probably way to early in our steps forward to start defining success like this.

For those of you interested the poll is located below. Please keep in mind that you cannot see the results without actually taking the poll itself.

http://www.thewhir.com/Poll/vote

\Mm

Here are the poll results so far.

I totally agree with Mike’s point on this being too early to celebrate progress, but this is a marketing stunt by WHIR. Not reflective of true design leadership.

There are so many other people out there pushing the edge of design like Microsoft’s Daniel Costello, MegaWatt Consulting KC Mares, bunches of people at Google and Amazon.

You could vote, but Rob Roy has already rallied his supporters in a popularity contest to vote for him. You know Rob Roy is going to be marketing his winning the WHIR Data Center Designer title.

What would be interesting to see is the list of people on the Write-in.

For a perspective, check out the comments on Mike’s blog entry. Manos and Sanche get mentioned in the last comment, and I agree with his comments on the innovation from these two.

3 Responses

on October 9, 2009 at 8:46 am | Reply Gerald Downs

I just took this poll and I have to say I was shocked! Rob Roy from SwitchNap is leading the data center designed category? Please! That man is a total joke. He probably voted for himself a million times. You and Olivier have 1000 times more experience than he does. They should have put him in the self-promoter category or marketing.

on October 9, 2009 at 5:40 pm | Reply m00sh00

Wow Gerald you are spectacularly uninformed. Apparently you have never been to see the SuperNAP or you would know it for the engineering triumph that it is. Rob Roy invented something that outperforms anything built by anyone else on that list, or in the data center industry for that matter. You might want to check your facts.

on October 10, 2009 at 9:05 am | Reply Gerald Downs

m00Sh00,

I have been on his dog and pony tour through that facility and I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing new. The whole tour was seriously a conversation in a cult of personality around Roy. I would also be curious as to how easily names get dropped as far as other customers in the building. As far as I am concerned his modularized approach and mechanical designs have been present in the military, oil and gas, and other industries for a long time. But you dont really have to go that far. You can easily look to the work being done by Google and Microsoft and a ton of others to see this same kind of thing. Not to plug Manos, but he has done the same thing on a much bigger, global scale than Roy. Additionally, Olivier Sanche who is mentioned is another truly innovator in the data center industry. Additionally, both Sanche and Manos are out there talking to the industry. I have yet to see Roy show up to ANY industry events. Perhaps he is to busy playing the with action figures in his office.

I think it might be you who needs to check your facts.

Disney & Verizon join Green Data Center Movement

October 8, 2009 Dave Ohara

NetworkWorld writes about Disney and Verizon making green data center announcements.

Disney, Verizon go green in the data center

Disney, Verizon lay out IT energy efficiency plans at Green Grid event

By Jon Brodkin , Network World , 10/06/2009

Energy efficiency in the data center is a top priority for Disney and Verizon, technology executives from the companies said last week. But the industry is still in the early stages of understanding how best to measure effectiveness, they said.

Disney has a companywide goal to reduce electricity consumption by 10% between 2006 and 2013, and the data center has to play a big role in achieving that objective, says Denis Weber, director of IT critical facilities infrastructure for the Walt Disney Co.

Five tools to prevent energy waste in the data center

For Disney, energy efficiency is being achieved through a series of small improvements, Weber said in an interview with Network World.

"Some of it just comes down to cleaning the facility up," Weber says. "And I don't mean with a dust pail and so on and a broom, but cleaning the data center up from obstructions and ensuring that every one of our floor tiles is sealed properly for air flow. Blanking panels -- not only that we have them but that they're in the right spot. Variable speed fans and motors on our CRAC units, increasing temperature settings across the board. These are all things that are not unique to Disney. But we have done it and that's where we've started to make progress."

The green grid was able to leverage their NYSE closing bell ringing to pull Disney and Verizon.

Disney and Verizon officials discussed their energy efficiency programs at the New York Stock Exchange last week during an event hosted by the Green Grid industry consortium.

Vote for Data Center Designer

September 30, 2009 Dave Ohara

Web Hosting Industry Review has a poll up and part of the selection is data center designer.

DATA CENTER DESIGNER

I think it bears rewarding the person that is doing a lot for data center design, taking on and completing a particularly interesting/difficult project, or introducing important new ideas - as I mentioned before, this could probably cover the green category as well.

Rob Roy
CEO and founder of Switch Communications is the formerly secretive force behind the SuperNAP in Las Vegas, a 407,000 square-foot facility promising 100 percent uptime through a tremendous investment in infrastructure and design.

Jordan Jacobs
Director of operations for PhoenixNAP, an interesting project particularly because, according to Jacobs, they set out to build a facility that could provide top end, super-redundant colocation at a price within the means of smaller customers (including hosting providers).

Olivier Sanche
The former eBay senior director of data center services and strategy was recruited last week by Apple to be its director of global data center operations. He's taking on a role that will have him involved in Apple's under-construction $1 billion data center in North Carolina, obviously a very significant facility, if just in terms of the investment, but probably in terms of how it will be employed.

Michael Manos
Senior vice president of technical services at data center company Digital Realty Trust, Manos joined the company earlier this year after previously leading the design, construction and operation of data centers at Microsoft.

Dean Nelson
founded the influential Data Center Pulse community. He very recently left Sun Microsystems to become eBay's senior director of global data center strategy, architecture and operations. He is also the co-author the Sun Blueprint, "Energy Efficient Datacenters: The Role of Modularity in Datacenter Design," and won Sun's 2008 Innovation Award.

Write-in
limit 40 chars.

Who would you vote for?