Schneider Electric acquires Lee Technologies, who is next?

I had plenty of friends who worked for APC and they now work for Schneider Electric. My Lee Technologies friends have joined my APC friends and are now part of the Schneider Electric as well.  Here is the press release.

Schneider Electric acquired US based Lee Technologies, a leading services provider for data centers

Rueil-Malmaison (France), April 4, 2011 – Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, announced today that it has acquired Lee Technologies, a leading service provider for the data centers of the North American market.

Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, Lee Technologies has over 300 employees and generated sales of about USD 140 million (approx. €104 million) in 2010.  The company specializes in the mission-critical data center services, including remote monitoring command centers and on-site critical facility operations.  It caters to several customer segments including federal government, financial services, telecommunications, information technology and healthcare.

Lee Technologies brings to Schneider Electric capabilities ranging from consulting, site assessment, design, equipment specification and selection to integration, commissioning, facility operations staffing, maintenance and proactive 24x7 remote monitoring.  This full repertoire of services will reinforce Schneider Electric’s IT business skills in data center management and its ability to provide data centers, one of the world’s fastest growing end-users of energy, with the best standards in energy conservation and reliability.

I've had the pleasure of hosting John Lee, CEO/Chairman of Lee Technologies for a few glasses of wine overlooking Lake Sammamish, and I hope to have a conversation soon with John on the new opportunities for Lee Technologies.

“We are excited about the opportunity to join Schneider Electric as we have always held the company in high esteem.  We are confident that our broad and comprehensive offering for data centers will be well positioned to benefit from solid growth opportunities in the future” said John C. Lee IV, Lee Technologies, CEO and Chairman.

I'll write up a follow up post when I get interviews.

Starbuck’s CEO Howard Schultz story, an 8 year break as CEO. Would Bill Gates follow the example?

Starbuck’s Howard Schultz releases his story on returning to Starbucks as CEO.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In 2000, Starbuck's founder and CEO Schultz (Pour Your Heart into It) stepped down from daily oversight of the company and assumed the role of chairman. Eight years later, in the midst of the recession and a period of decline unprecedented in the company's recent history, Schultz-feeling that the soul of his brand was at risk-returned to the CEO post. In this personal, suspenseful, and surprisingly open account, Schultz traces his own journey to help Starbucks reclaim its original customer-centric values and mission while aggressively innovating and embracing the changing landscape of technology. From the famous leaked memo that exposed his criticisms of Starbucks to new product strategies and rollouts, Schultz bares all about the painful yet often exhilarating steps he had to take to turn the company around. Peppered with stories from his childhood in tough Canarsie, N.Y., neighborhoods, his sequel to the founding of Starbucks is grittier, more gripping, and dramatic, and his voice is winning and authentic. This is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership, management, or the quest to connect a brand with the consumer. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

When I see this story and I start reading it (I have pre-ordered the Kindle edition, so it should show up on my Kindle in 2 hours at Midnight PT.), I wonder if Bill Gates would follow Howard Schultz’s example and return to Microsoft.  Many say Bill would never go back, but I am sure many said the same of Howard Schultz.

Howard felt so good about his accomplishments he wrote a book to tell the story.  Can you imagine the story Bill would tell after 8 years returning to Microsoft?  I bet there would be many people who left Microsoft who would return if Bill came back.

Back-up Power System installation takes out AlaskaAir fleet central computer system

I got up at 5:15a this morning to get my mom on a 6:50a flight from SEA to SJC.  Checking with my sister she said the flight was a bit late.  Luckily she was only late 20 minutes arriving in SJC as opposed to the next 4 + hours of cancelled flights when AlaskaAir's computer system was brought down during installation of a back-up power system blew a transformer.

This is why  I couldn't check flight status this morning.

Systemwide Central Computer Outage

A systemwide central computer outage has caused delays to flights throughout the Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air network. We apologize for inconvenience this is causing our customers.

I wonder what the cost impact is of cancelling 95 + flights.

DALLAS (AP) - Alaska Airlines and its Horizon Air affiliate canceled 95 flights Saturday because a computer system used for flight planning failed.

How many of the AlaskaAir IT operations guys have learned some new things about facility operations.  You'd think they could run the power system change  during the window of time when AlaskaAir isn't running fleet operations. (update)  The transformer failure happened at 3a this morning, so the maintenance was performed after hours, but a major transformer failure is not a quick repair.

Starting Viral Content watching the Twitter Data Center Migration Story

At 9:36a PT Mike Abbot posted the Great Migration story.

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

The Great Migration, the Winter of 2011

If you look back at the history of Twitter, our rate of growth has largely outpaced the capacity of our hardware, software, and the company itself. Indeed, in our first five years, Twitter's biggest challenge was coping with our unprecedented growth and sightings of the infamous Fail Whale.

…

Posted by @mabb0tt at 9:36 AM

I posted my blog post at 10:16AM.

Twitter's Data Center Migration Story on its 5th Birthday

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011 AT 10:16AM

At 7p I decided to check on the Twitter Data Center news and saw way more posts/articles than I would expect on a data center migration project.

DataCenterKnowledge

DataCenterDynamics

GigaOm

AllThingsDigital

CIO

SeattlePI (which uses the exact urls I referenced)

All these data center posts without a press release from Twitter, just a post on Twitter’s engineering blog.

And a little help from the Green Data Center blog.

What will be missed by most is the data center story by the Twitter engineering team.

Some of my most consistent readers are media and PR related.

We’ll see when Twitter tells their next data center story and how fast that story spreads.

Thanks for reading Green Data Center blog.

News Source for US Military Activities in Libya, AFRICOM

I have some friends who do some work for three letter acronyms entities and they pointed me to AFRICOM as some innovative thinking.  One of things that is useful going to the AFRICOM Military website is you can get access to the public documents and images shared on things like the US Military activities in Libya that media outlets reuse.

Here are a few pictures that are open for the public to view.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA - Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stout (DDG 55) launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 19, 2011. This was one of approximately 110 cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships and submarines that targeted about 20 radar and anti-aircraft sites along Libyaaâ€s Mediterranean coast. Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973. UNSCR 1973 authorizes "all necessary measures" to protect civilians in Libya under threat of attack by Qadhafi regime forces. JTF Odyssey Dawn is commanded by U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, III. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Pappas) [20110320132841 ]

MEDITERRANEAN SEA - The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stout launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, March 19, 2011. This was one of approximately 110 cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships and submarines that targeted about 20 radar and anti-aircraft sites along Libya's Mediterranean coast. Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeramy Spivey) [20110320124046 ]

MEDITERRANEAN SEA - Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Fremen, with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22, calibrates the forward looking infrared (FLIR) system of a MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter on the flight deck of amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, March 19, 2011. The FLIR system allows pilots a 360-degree view of the area surrounding the helicopter. Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973. UNSCR 1973 authorizes all necessary measures to protect civilians in Libya under threat of attack by Qadhafi regime forces. JTF Odyssey Dawn is commanded by U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, III. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Scott Pittman) [20110320131427 ]

This AFRICOM press release was more informative than most media articles out there if you are looking for facts.

Beginning late on March 19, 2011, the U.S. military launched strikes against selected military targets in Libya, launching more than 120 Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. ships and U.S. and British submarines.
U.S military assets that participated in the strikes include: two U.S. Navy ships and three submarines; 15 U.S. Air Force aircraft, including the B-2 Spirit Bomber and four U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers all of which launched strikes against targets in Libya. These targets include SA-5, SA-3 and SA-2 air defense systems around Libyan airfields and various munitions sites. U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers provided electronic warfare support.

...

In a statement late March 19, U.S. AFRICOM commander General Carter Ham discussed U.S. and international objectives. Ham stated, "Our goals are simple: We want to protect innocent civilians, prevent attacks against civilian communities, and deter mass atrocities."
U.S. leaders and their international counterparts have defined clear objectives for military actions, Ham noted. These include:

• A cease-fire must be implemented and all attacks against civilians must stop
• Troops must stop advancing against Benghazi and must be pulled back from Ajdabiya, Misrata, and Zawiya.
• Water, electricity, and gas supplies must be turned on to all areas.
• Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya.