Michiel van Blommestein's Blog

IT Techs: Take Note of all Mergers and Acquisitions, For Your Own Good

It has been a hot summer on the tech front. The Dell-HP battle for 3PAR is still raging, Intel surprised everybody with their McAfee acquisition, and VMware and Citrix are very much in a buying mood as well.

The chief question is: so what?

Back when I was a journalist for Techworld, we were thinking about fazing out mergers and acquisition news in favour of practical tips for the workplace. Reason was very simple: IT Pros did not read… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on September 1, 2010 at 0:06 — No Comments

Debunking the 'Community Benefit' Myth

How happy should a rural community be when a large corporation decides to build a data center there? Very happy, if we have to believe the local press. Large facility equals large investment equals jobs equals opportunities for the inhabitants, right?

Not so, according to ZDNet's blogger David Chernicoff in a sharp clear post. The problem is that data centers tend to be designed in a… Continue

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

For your viewing pleasure: John Cleese

Just a quick post today before the weekend, and this one is based on something the Green Data Center Blog posted earlier today.

John Cleese may be getting old, and I have seen him doing promotion for more than one tech company (so he is not the most independent of minds, so to speak). But in all honesty, the man is still a legend. The following clip is about creativity,… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 28, 2010 at 1:00 — No Comments

How Biofuel can Ruin your Availability

Big scare going around: more and more authorities are mandating biofuel for use in data center backup generators. While this is great in theory, it is less so in practice, as this article at Techtarget.

To illustrate what is going on, let me tell you about my own experience with my car. I am driving a 1999 Toyota Diesel, which is the fuel the Dutch government hates the most… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 26, 2010 at 23:00 — 2 Comments

Microsoft Shows why the Cloud is still Flawed

Yesterday was a bad blue monday for customers of Microsoft's hosted business software in North America. A network failure disconnected them from their business productivity suites and hosted mail servers for over two hourse. To make matters worse, it happened at the start of the working day, when people actually DO read their mail and start planning the rest of the week.

"The outage was caused by a network issue that is now fully resolved, and service has… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 24, 2010 at 22:07 — No Comments

Tips for a Tidy Data Center?

I would be the worst data center manager in the world. The reason is very simple: I am very disorganised, and that is probably one of the worst traits to have when you are trying to run an IT facility. As I write this, paperwork is scattered all over my desk, there are countless of browser windows opened at the same time, and the cabling of my one desktop computer reminds me of the plate of spaghetti I ate today, If that is problematic for me, how hard would it be to organise a data… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 23, 2010 at 21:27 — No Comments

Is AHSRAE overdoing it?

Nail, head, hammer, perfect strike? Or failing to hit the broad side of a barn? I just quickly wanted to point out to this article on the site of Data Center Journal. As the call for data center efficiency grows louder by more and more stakeholders (and even non-stakeholders), so does the call for regulation.

The American… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 20, 2010 at 22:00 — No Comments

Intel Buys a Big Mac

The acquisition of McAfee by Intel is unquestionably one of the biggest takeovers of this year. Potentially, this is going to rock the IT world as much as, say Oracle-Sun did last year. With a sum of almost 7.7 billion dollar, it is a large buy even for a giant like Intel. And it shows Intel means business, as the price reflects a 62 percent premium on the share price of the day the deal was made.

Why? Obviously,… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 20, 2010 at 0:01 — No Comments

New Brocade Facility Implements Own Innovation

Brocade has opened a new facility near their San Jose headquarters, reports DatacenterDynamics. And yes, it is all about drinking one's own poison.

The vendor consolidated three R&D facilities into the new 5,000 sq ft data center, reducing physical footprint of its research labs by 30 percent… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 18, 2010 at 23:44 — No Comments

Powering Servers with Waste Heat

Everybody here should know the concept of perpetual motion. Also, I can assume that it is known that this concept is purely hypothetical. That's too bad, because otherwise we might have had the perfect solution for data centers at hand: the perpetual motion of heat-to-electricity for servers, that again generate the heat.

Applied Methodologies Inc.… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 17, 2010 at 22:00 — No Comments

The Storage War Comes to an End...

...and will probably enter an era of cold consolidation, as giant Dell has bought 3PAR. That means this space is now almost exclusively taken up by the big boys: HP, IBM, and Hitachi Data Systems (which, admittedly, is the odd one out). Still, it is yet another sign that the entire data center will be consolidated to a couple of large vendors, where the only way for them to survive is by being gobbled up by one of the IT… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 16, 2010 at 23:43 — No Comments

The Pros and Cons of CFD

While we have been discussing the merits and flaws of PUE, another computational model is making great strides in the data center sphere: Computational Fluid Dynamic, or CFD. However, the whole concept is totally different.

Because where PUE focuses on bringing a straightforward, easy to use calculation on data center efficiency, the core value of CFD is accurate tracking of the air flow. In cooling, air flow is (of course) vital and probably one of the most difficult things to… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 13, 2010 at 22:21 — No Comments

Yeah, more predictions!

My hiatus is over, and I have to say: it was a bit short considering the fact that Polish-Lithuanian weddings are quite taxing on both body and mind (especially if you are the groom).

But that does not mean that the data center world is standing still, and especially Data Center Professionals. The new discussions and blog posts are really interesting. Keep it up!

The first thing I got in my mail was a so-called… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 12, 2010 at 23:12 — No Comments

A Case with Containers

Quick post today. Case studies are one way for writers to make a living, and I speak out of expierence that it is actually quite a challenge. Recently, containerised data centers are in, and Techtarget published a short case of Purdue that are implementing the HP POD. Now, this case study is a bit broader than the usual paid-for article, so it is an ok read if your planning to dabble with… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 3, 2010 at 22:26 — No Comments

APC and Software???

We all know APC (they like to add: 'By Schneider Electric', but that makes it a bit convoluted if you ask me...) as one of the big vendors of power supplies, cooling systems and what not. Together with Emerson, they are also one of the loudest when it comes to PR.

But among those less interesting announcements, you sometimes see one that makes you sit up for a while. This one from last week did that to me, actually:… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on August 2, 2010 at 21:52 — 2 Comments

Finally: A Call Against the Green Tea

I was having this feeling for ages, but finally Doug Mohney (the main writer for Green Data Center News) has put a great analysis that words almost exactly how I feel.

Personally, I call this the problem of the 'Green Tea'. Because every vendor is trying to put 'green' in their PR efforts as much as possible, it is getting… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 30, 2010 at 23:01 — No Comments

The Design Fantastic

Data Center Knowledge is running an article on some of the most interesting data center designs in the world.

It is truly fascinating on the way engineers think up their building in a way that is both functional and esthetically pleasing. Well, in data centers, it is usually the 'functional' that is leading. But it is possible to get some art out there as well.

Some of these… Continue

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

Yet Another 'Pre-Fab' Data Center Model

When Mike Manos came up with the idea to containerise a Microsoft data center in Chicago, he was really on to something. More and more industry leaders come up with their own idea of dividing data centers into modules that are cheap to transport and install.

The latest vendor to bring us one is HP, which has christened it the Flexible Data Center. Each 'part' is… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 28, 2010 at 20:24 — No Comments

Where is the Most Expensive Place to Run a Data Center?

Today I got a mail from Techtarget containing an article on how a new law in California could make it extremely expensive to run a data center over there. Now, as the Dutch say: The soup usually is not eaten as hot as it is served, and it won't probably be as bad as some would led you to believe.

However, it did make me wonder: where would it be most expensive to run a data center right… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 27, 2010 at 21:40 — 2 Comments

Better be a Friend of BICSI

Most of you would be familiar with BICSI (Building Industry Consulting Service International), the international information technology systems association. Their involvement with the data center sphere goes back a good while, and their influence in especially the US is profound on a tech knowledge level.

This month, the group has announced two partnerships. A new 'friendship agreement' is… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 26, 2010 at 22:35 — No Comments

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