I just got back from Data Center World in Las Vegas, and a couple of question I was asked were.
Seen anything good at the show?
Do you see anything as big changes in the data center industry?
After a long night out on Tuesday night with some amazingly smart data center people it hit me what is changing the data center industry. People. There are more people who are thinking holistically of the role data centers play in IT. The past ways of building data centers are many times wasteful, inflexible and expensive.
There are now people who have software backgrounds who are working on data centers. There are process engineers who are working on data centers. The role of data center designer building to align with the companies business is part of a business strategy. Twitter is the latest to announce they are going to a custom data center.
Importantly, having our own data center will give us the flexibility to more quickly make adjustments as our infrastructure needs change.
Finally, Twitter's custom data center is built for high availability and redundancy in our network and systems infrastructure. This first Twitter managed data center is being designed with a multi-homed network solution for greater reliability and capacity. We will continue to work with NTT America to operate our current footprint, and plan to bring additional Twitter managed data centers online over the next 24 months.
The rapid growth of the data center construction driven by companies who are hiring expertise into their company to build efficient, flexible and cost effective data centers to align with business objectives is where companies are gaining competitive advantages.
A common problem in colocation data centers is the end user’s perception that a cold data center is a good data center. It is people’s beliefs that drive misperceptions on what a data center should be. The innovative people are breaking the myths created by the analyst community and marketing departments on what a data center should be.
One of the main reason I went to Data Center World in LV was actually to go to a private party at PURE nightclub.
I will name no one who was there, but for those who were there you know who was, and I wanted to document the event as how it is significant to drive change in the industry. Many of the people there I have blogged about as they are some of the most innovative thinkers. People are driving the greening of data centers not technology.
We had four cabanas outside with a great view of the city.
I met the organizer of the event for the first time in Dec 2009 when interestingly enough I went to PURE for his private party. The first one was fun with about a dozen. Yesterday’s party had about 3 dozen. He was able to get an amazing attendee list.
At the last minute we got a confirmation someone was flying in at 9p and he could make the party, as many of his ex-coworkers and present coworkers were there. His last minute acceptance I shared with another visionary who I met at the show who had his “500 MW of power” data center team with him and he changed his travel plans to attend the party as he realized when else could he connect with some of the other people there. Plus he’s partied at PURE and knew how much fun it would be.
We had a few more people who were able to bring some forward thinking end users and land owners as well, so it wasn’t just data center designers.
Writing this blog post at 10p on Weds night, it is kind of surreal that just 24 hours ago, I was in LV with some of most amazing data center people.
The tagline “What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” may describe a typical late night party. But, I think what happened last night at the PURE nightclub was a connecting of people who have a passion for the industry rarely seen, and their ideas will leave Vegas.
People are going to drive the greening of data centers and changes in the industry. Not a vendor’s technology. Not, new standards or an analyst report.
Dec 2010 is Gartner Data Center World and many of the same people will be back in Vegas. We’ll see if the party master can pull off another event, but he is going to have a tough time topping last night.