Last year, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel with Jack Glass, Joe Kava, and Mike Manos on the Hunt for Data center talent.

Hunt for Data Center Talent panel at 7x24 Exchange - Jack Glass, Joe Kava, Mike Manos

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011 AT 7:41AM

The folks at 7x24 Exchange gave us the opportunity to discuss a topic that does not focus on the technology. So, if we don't discuss data center technology, what should we discuss? Our idea was to discuss the #1 issue that defines the operations and design of a data center, the people on the data center team.

We had an awesome panel with a good perspective on what talent is needed in the data center.

Jack Glass, P.E.
Director - Data Center Planning
Citi Technology Infrastructure

Mike Manos
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
AOL

Joe Kava
Senior Director, Data Centers
Google

Now that I pay more attention to the topic of data center talent it is amazing how many times people make the wrong decisions on who to hire. Well wrong in the opinion of people who work on data centers. Someone at a senior executive level who usually knows little about data centers picks based on his personal preference. But, what do senior company executives know about data center executives. The NYTimes writes on "The Secrets of Talent Scouts" and makes an excellent closing remark.

For all of Sequoia’s success, Mr. Moritz cautions: “We often get it wrong. Judging people is more difficult than judging a market or a product. Markets rarely deliver big surprises. People will always produce surprises.”

When someone is on the speaker tour they are either selling their services, adding public speaking engagements as their internal achievements, looking for a new job. Or a 4th option is sharing knowledge because it is the right thing to do.

Hint: the data center talent is more often the 4th option, and not the necessarily the most popular. As we have all learned being the nerdy kids in the school, the most popular are not necessarily the most talented.