I just spent a day at Schneider Electric's media event in Chicago. Reflecting on what I got out of the event I'll just dump a stream of what comes to mind.

I was looking forward to connecting with Kevin Heslin with Mission Critical Magazine and Rich Miller with DataCenteKnowledge as any significant data center event has both of them there. Between the three of us creating content on data centers, Kevin made the point how much content would be loss if for some reason something happened to all three of us at the event. I don't put myself in the same category as Kevin and Rich who are professional media people, but I do get media status with my blogging so I enjoy the benefits of seeing how things are presented to the media.

As part of getting ready for Schneider's event, Data Center Dynamics, and AFCOM Data Center World (where by the way I'll see Rich and Kevin again), I decided to upgrade my media capabilities. I am a Canon user which can be just as religious an issue vs. Nikon. After much thought I decided to get a Canon 7D.

EOS 7D
EOS Digital SLR Cameras

Maximum resolution for any application.

The EOS 7D features a Canon-designed 18.0 Megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor that captures such a high level of resolution it's easy to crop images for enlargement without concern of losing detail. A major factor in reducing noise, the CMOS sensor assures that images shot at highest sensitivity will be remarkably smooth. Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors ensure that images are captured, processed and saved with remarkable speed. The EOS 7D's ability to capture and process data of images shot at 18.0 Megapixels at 8 fps, as well as Face Detection Live Mode, Full HD video recording, Auto Lighting Optimizer and Lens Peripheral optimization are all possible thanks to the Dual DIGIC 4 Image Processors.

One of the features I was playing with is to tether the Canon 7D to my laptop to allow quick transfer of images to my PC which I actually got a bunch of comments from other media people asking about my setup at the event. My Lenovo X200 Tablet worked well capturing images and video while tethering transferring images in seconds.

I couldn't find an exact video of what I was doing on YouTube, but here is a Canon 5D Mark II connected to a Mac. This worked extremely well and I am looking forward to try the setup at other events to enable live blogging with better quality images and video.

What did I get out of the event for content? I met Kevin Brown and his presentation on Infrastruxure.

APC by Schneider Electric unveiled the next generation InfraStruxure architecture, a high performance, scalable and adaptable data center architecture. InfraStruxure integrates power, cooling, racks, security and management in a modular form factor and is a building block of Schneider Electric’s comprehensive energy management architecture portfolio, EcoStruxure. This new generation of InfraStruxure delivers a 25% increase in power and cooling capacity and a 15% smaller footprint, all while reducing cost by 15%. Holland Computing Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, uses InfraStruxure to run high performance computing for cutting-edge research, including a 21 TFlop supercomputer, shared memory processing, grid computing and development of hadoop-on-demand and other custom implementations.

And spent a bunch of time with software his software subject matter expert Jon Gould diving into details of their modeling and simulation.

APC also introduced new features to the overall InfraStruxure management software portfolio, to better enable IT managers to change the way they monitor, operate, manage and maintain their data centers through the integration of new virtualization capabilities and upgraded energy efficiency and operations software. Enhanced capabilities include:

The new Data Center Lab application within InfraStruxure Capacity - a data center project management tool that enables the design of new data center build-outs or data center upgrades.

InfraStruxure Capacity’s updated Impact Analysis application - provides an instant overview of data center physical infrastructure operations including UPS, power distribution and cooling independent of the types and brands of equipment present in the data center.

InfraStuxure Efficiency 1.1 - IT managers can quickly and easily report on monthly energy consumption of their data center subsystems including CO2 emissions, PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and DCIE (Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency).

InfraStruxure Capacity Network Management Tool - provides insight into equipment dependencies including mapping and documenting fiber and copper networks from servers, via patch panels, to switches or routers allowing IT managers to document connectivity, manage their network structure and plan and control network usage.

Saw Rick McKay's BMS solution for data center facility operations.

I'll write a blog entry about Aaron Davis's presentation.

Overall I have a much better understanding of the Schneider Electric's portfolio, and met a lot of Schneider/APC people I am sure I will connect with again.