Michiel van Blommestein's Blog

The Anniversary of an Odd, Enduring Marriage

Quick post today. The Register, while it sometimes overdoes it in half funny coverage of nonsensical news, has an interesting comment running this week.

It is a celebration of ten years of Linux on IBM Mainframes. While it may sound logical now that it is Linux that has saved Big Iron from catastrophe, it is actually kind of weird that two so different tech business philosophies are so well matched together.… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 29, 2010 at 20:39 — No Comments

Storage is Boring, and here is the Evidence

To paraphrase a former chief editor of mine: storage is boring. You have a disk, and you put stuff on it. Finito, there is no more to it than that. Nothing to see here, move along. Unfortunately, he does have a point. Not much is happening in terms of technological or even functional breakthroughs.

When I was an editor at IDG, there was very little news in terms of storage. Data warehousing maybe, SANs or NAS's. Too bad it was seldomly

ripe for a good article. Disks get bigger… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 28, 2010 at 22:51 — No Comments

About Dodgy Construction Firms

We all know that contracters and constructors can be slippery. Heck, I once had my roof fixed, and the invoice was about twice as high as was agreed beforehand! However, the rule is that the bigger the client, the dodgier the dealing can be.

That's exactly what happened in Chicago with the US's largest data center operator being the fat singing lady. Apparently, Digital Realty Trust play a key part in the downfall… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 25, 2010 at 23:41 — No Comments

Diagnosing Big Data

Structure 2010, a conference concerning internet infrastructure and cloud computing (and, consequently, data centers) is underway in San Francisco. Blogger Katie Fehrenbacher does some nice, regular blogposts from there.

One of them is a list of signs that you are really dealing with big data. What is big data? Well, that is exactly the problem. you really don't know that you have, say, malaria if you don't recognise the symptoms. You might misdiagnose it yourself as a simple… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 24, 2010 at 23:10 — No Comments

Comparing PUE is Great Fun, if not very Accurate

PUE may not be the best of instruments for handing out, let's say, world wide energy labels. But what PUE can offer is a view at how well you're operation is going, and it gives a quick answer to the question wheter there is any space for improvement.

Consequently, the data center space is locked in a friendly competition of 'who has the smallest', or more accurately: who comes closest to… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 23, 2010 at 22:58 — No Comments

This Post Will Solve All Your Problems

Forget the post I wrote yesterday, and the Network World article it pointed to. If you want to solve all your problems with your facility and don't mind for the rewards to come in a couple of months rather than a couple of weeks, Peter Judge of Green Data Center News has a very simple solution:

STOP BUYING NEW HARDWARE!

The funny thing is, this is not as preposterous as it first appears. If… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 22, 2010 at 22:29 — No Comments

No Vacation for you Data Center Managers!

If you're planning to do a data center project next year, than I have some very bad news for you: if you have not started it, than you're summer vacation is going to be a short one indeed. You need to have your budget ready by autumn to be able to do some serious shopping during the holiday period. That is hardly a relaxing thing to do, especially if it is actually the first large project in ages.…

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Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 21, 2010 at 22:30 — No Comments

Member Interview: From Data Center Mover to Command Center Consolidator

As promised, at the Data Center Professional Network we want to feature you, the community members from time to time. Our very first interview for the Data Center Professional Network takes us to the United States. Austin, Texas, to be more exact. Harold Gilchrist has been a member since last March.…

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Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 19, 2010 at 9:30 — No Comments

Marketing at the Expense of own Employees.

Every once in a while, someone comes up with a neat little marketing gimmick. It always is commercial as hell, and gets old really quickly. But it will get a smile on your face the first time you see it.

Our network manager today added a nice little video to the site coming from Isilon Systems, a NAS storage firm. In it, some chap gets what appears to be a tour from an... enthusiastic... IT guy in the Isilon data center. The guest then pulls something off, and the reaction of the IT… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 17, 2010 at 23:15 — No Comments

And Now TechTarget Interviews 'Mr. PUE'

I'll keep this short: they had Mike Manos, they had Dr. Bob Sullivan and in the ongoing series of interviewing some of the data center world's most influential minds, TechTarget adds another big name to the list. This time,… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 15, 2010 at 23:02 — No Comments

MTV: About Cabinet Cooling and Cubed Floors

Our Dutch partners have published a new issue of DatacenterWorks, their magazine aimed at people like, well, you. As most of you know, it is in Dutch and therefore unfortunately not very intelligible for the most of you. However, this month's cover story is rather interesting. It features a new computerroom for MTV, which serves the broadcasts in a large part of Europe.

So what is so special about it? Two things. Firstly, the whole room was built in a mere 2 months, which is very fast… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 14, 2010 at 23:27 — No Comments

Just a Little Announcement

No regular post today, but a small announcement. A while back I had the idea of interviewing members of this network and putting the results on this page. Well, recently I finally followed up the idea and began to send some mails. The reason is that we are just that: a community. And getting to know

each other is part of that. Don't worry, everyone who is not interested

is still free to lurk away here.

Some of you have already replied, so I am happy to tell you that as of… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 11, 2010 at 23:16 — No Comments

Red Hat Making 'Virtual Data Center' Gains

When Red Hat acquired KVM, it was either going to be a top or a flop. When they did that, VMware and Microsoft were battling each in a sometimes embarrassing competition of 'who has the biggest'. Citrix is barely hanging on, while other competitors just could not keep up in the years of these virtualisation war.

Everything depended on Red Hat finding some kind of niche for the KVM technology. It seems they found it:… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 10, 2010 at 22:52 — No Comments

Yet Another Giant Shares his Views

It seems that TechTarget are on a roll when it comes to interviewing industry heavyweights. A week ago, they spoke to Mike Manos. This week, they got hold of 'Dr. Bob' Sullivan, the man who stood at the cradle of the hot aisle/cold aisle cold aisle design almost twenty years ago.

Now hot/cool aisling is almost standard, even though mr. Sullivan is frustrated about the fact that not all new… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 9, 2010 at 22:30 — No Comments

What Data Centers and Household Appliances now have in Common

(picture courtesy of treehugger.com)

Yes, it is a fact now: your data center is now comparable to fridges, washing machines and microwaves. In what way?

No points if you guessed right: data centers can now earn the Energy Star label as well. It is not very easy though, as…

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Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 8, 2010 at 22:05 — No Comments

A Huge Test of Cloud Automation Tools

At long last. For some reason, the trade magazines refrained from doing a thorough test of cloud automation tools. But to make the cloud worthwhile, they are definitely needed. The marketplace was maturing slowly though, and only now the larger vendors are coming up with serious automation tools.

Smaller vendors have been showing their tricks though, and now Network World has finally picked it up and… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 7, 2010 at 22:56 — No Comments

For Those of You Tired of Being Accused of Planet Killing

Short post today. Does it bother you that you as a data center professional keep on hearing that you're being part of the blackest, most polluting industry around? And that, consequently, you are one of those greedy 'suits' for whom 'green' is just a PR tool?

If that is the case, Mark Thiele (CEO of Data Center Pulse) has written a blog post just for you. Read it, and… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 4, 2010 at 23:38 — No Comments

Don't let the Smart Grid Dumb Down

Whether it is good for average consumers is one thing, but the upcoming smart grid (in the US, and probably later in Europe as well) is going to be an interesting development for data centers as well. Even so much that it is not a utility thing anymore, but mainly an IT thing. That is further reinvorced by the fact that Vint Cerf is a member of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP).

However, the smart grid has one serious problem which other IT project don't have to cope with,… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 3, 2010 at 23:14 — No Comments

Massive Takeover earns Digital Realty New Record

Digital Realty Trust is quickly becoming the Oracle of data center space. Apart from the discussion if that's a good thing or not, the fact is that DRT is on one heck of a buying spree. Just like Oracle, 'organical growth' is just not in their dictionary.

Now, the data center facility giant has made one big sweep by buying all five of the 365 Main facilities for the sum of… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 2, 2010 at 22:44 — No Comments

"Climate Change Regulation the new Y2K"

Mike Manos, the data center world's answer to Security's Bruce Schneier, has been doing his stuff now for a couple of months at Nokia. Techtarget interviewed him, asking him about what he sees as the biggest game changers in the industry.

The biggest game changer, according to him, is going to be climate change regulations, specifically the… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on June 1, 2010 at 23:44 — No Comments

The Data Center Professionals Network

Michiel van Blommestein's Blog – June 2010 Archive (20)