AFCOM

Update on AFCOM Data Center World figures

Just now I received a call updating me on the attendance figures from AFCOM’s Data Center World. As it turns out, there were 822 attendees, about 95% of which were end users (that makes about 781 end users, within the 700-800 range I wrote about last week in a post about the AFCOM Data Center World show).

Also, there were 275 exhibiting companies and 345 booths, according to an AFCOM spokesperson. The spokesperson didn’t know how many exhibitor personnel there were. From talking to people from AFCOM and vendors at the show, I heard there were more 900. This makes sense, as it rounds to a little more than 3 people per exhibitor.

I also said in my original post that only one of about a dozen AFCOM board members is an end user. I was wrong. The representatives from Intel and Nortel are data center users that work for vendor companies, and I left them out, so there are actually three end users on the board.

Needless to say, the AFCOM leadership is upset because I said the show was vendor-heavy, but the fact is that it was. Of the 40 educational sessions in four tracks — best practices, data center management, emerging technology, and facilities/greening — 35 were run by vendors or consultants.

In a down economy, I realize there’s a higher chance of there being more vendors than users. But I did hear from users who thought there was too much vendor presence at the show, and not enough end user presence, especially in the educational sessions. I stand by my hope that AFCOM gets more end users to run sessions in future shows.

Sorting through data center utility rebates

There’s a good chance that your utility company has an incentive program in place if you boost your data center energy efficiency. But sorting through the programs can be a hassle, and dealing with the back-and-forth with the utility company can as well.

In addition, said Adam Fairbanks, vice president of data center services for Bluestone Energy Services, data center managers have enough on their plate. They’re more concerned with keeping their facilities online, not looking for utility rebates.

Bluestone is a consulting firm that serves as a middleman between data centers and the utility company. It looks to get data centers utility rebates. By coming into the building and doing an audit, Bluestone can determine if there needs to be a more detailed technical assistance study, and then report on how much money you can save by implementing the utility rebate program.

Fairbanks said that utilities will usually pay for half of this assistance study, and in the end, the utility company itself sends the end user a letter detailing how much of a rebate the utility will give if you move forward with energy efficiency measures.

Data center utility rebate programs from Pacific Gas & Electric have made the most headlines in the data center world, but Fairbanks said utilities up and down the East Coast, in the Midwest and on the West Coast offer incentive programs. Not all of them are as specific as PG&E’s, which for example has one specifically for server virtualization projects. Most of them just give a rebate based on how much power you can prove you’ll save through an energy efficiency project.

Is hiring Bluestone or another consultant worth it? It could be by lessening your own headache, and if Bluestone can prove that the utility rebate will save you more than you have to pay Bluestone in the first place. Then again, if you have the in-house expertise and knowledge to do it yourself, go for it. Exploring your utility’s rebate programs is a great way to pick up some extra savings.

Should AFCOM rename it the Data Center Vendor World conference?

Attendance at this year’s spring Data Center World conference was lighter than in past years, which was expected.

The economy has affected turnout at tradeshows this year. Last week I was at the Share mainframe user group conference in Austin, and that had lower attendance as well. Usually Data Center World in Las Vegas brings in the crowds, but that wasn’t the case as much this year.

Vendors I spoke to said traffic was steady, but definitely lighter. I heard that there were 700-800 end users at the show, but more than 900 exhibitor personnel. Whenever the vendor presence is larger than the end user presence, that’s not a good sign. Then again, Data Center World has always had a large vendor turnout, with dozens of booths on the show floor. Which isn’t a bad thing, as long as you’re getting end users to those booths with intentions to buy.

Speaking of vendors, I noticed there were more vendor-led sessions at Data Center World than in past shows. Some of them were good — Richard Sawyer from EYP Mission Critical Facilities (part of HP), for example, gave a great talk on data center staffing — but others were not. Even the keynote by Sun’s chief technology officer Greg Papadopoulos, though very interesting, was seen by some data center users I talked to as a veiled sales pitch for Sun’s cloud computing technology. I will say that I thought Papadopoulos did what he could to make his talk about the cloud computing trend, and not Sun products. But it’s inevitable that end users will feel the way they did when Papadopoulos had slides in his presentation that mentioned Solaris, Java and xVM.

Nathan Montgomery, data center operations manager for Brinks Home Security, told me he went to an all-day tutorial on Monday that was supposed to be about building and expanding your data center. But he said it was more like a vendor “show and tell,” and was upset enough to seek a refund from AFCOM (the tutorials were an extra $200 fee). To AFCOM’s credit, they did refund him that fee.

Even AFCOM’s board of directors is vendor heavy. It has about a dozen members, but only one of them is an end user. The rest are vendors and consultants. So here’s to hoping that AFCOM reaches out more to the end user community. If they can get more of them on the board of directors, maybe that could lead to more of them giving end user-focused sessions, which is what Montgomery and most other users are looking for.

Can you afford data center CFD?

Computational fluid dynamics has become a popular way for data centers to analyze the air flow in their facilities and determine if the cold and hot air is going where it should. But for smaller businesses, CFD is simply out of their price range.

There are different tiers of affordability out there, however. The cheapest I’ve seen is CoolSim, which at its most basic level, costs $7,500 a year. The other two major data center CFD vendors — TileFlow and Future Facilities’ 6Sigma — go for about twice and four times that, respectively.

Another unique aspect of CoolSim is that it’s a client-server, more services-based model. You have a basic desktop application where you build your data center model. Then you export that model to a file and send the file to CoolSim, which crunches the numbers and sends back a report. With TileFlow and Future Facilities, you do the crunching in-house.

“We deliver it as a SaaS model,” said Paul Bemis, president of the Concord, N.H.-based company. “Since it’s client server, you only pay for what you need.”

But the most important aspect of CFD modeling is accuracy, and with a product like CoolSim, there’s a question around whether you get what you pay for. Pete Sacco, president of engineering and consulting firm PTS Data Center Solutions, has said that cheaper CFD modeling tools such as CoolSim simply aren’t as accurate as the Future Facilities product, which his company uses.

Bemis acknowledges that the Future Facilities software encompasses more detailed results, but says that a lot of data centers don’t really need or want that much detail. And obviously he disputes claims that CoolSim results could be inaccurate. But as with any product out there, it’s all about caveat emptor. If you do your due diligence, you can quickly find out for yourself what is the right product for the right price.

Tour of colocation company DataSite’s data center

Last night a bunch of us Data Center World conference attendees were able to tour a new colocation facility in Orlando that DataSite will be running. I was hoping to get it on video, but alas, the folks at DataSite shut me down for security reasons. Nonetheless it was an interesting tour and building.

The facility was initially built in 1984, and DataSite spent about $3.5 million to rehab it to current data center standards. It’s a big building – 130,000 square feet – with 85,000 square feet of 3-foot raised floor space.

Joe Soroka from Total Site Solutions, who has talked in the past about getting IT and facilities folks to get along, was one of the tour directors. Total Site has worked with DataSite on the upgrades and will be maintaining the facility. He showed us around the place, taking us into the room with the jet turbine generators that had mufflers as wide as giant sewer pipes.

For those generators DataSite has two 20,000-gallon fuel tanks, in which they have white kerosene. Why not diesel? Soroka said that during a hurricane, diesel can be virtually impossible to get a hold of because it all goes to the hospitals.

There are variable frequency drives (VFDs) on the chiller pumps to save energy, and connections so that any uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can be connected to any battery module in the separate battery room.

The building also has an old loop of pipe that was once used to water-cool the mainframes. DataSite is repurposing the pipe so that high-density customers have a liquid-cooling option.

The company is offering up to 5,000-square-foot cages and up to 50,000 square feet of dedicated space. Currently the raised floor space is empty except for some Liebert equipment scattered here and there. As for customers, one of the company representatives said DataSite was hoping the tour would generate some interest. So for now, there is plenty of space available.

Liebert, Aperture, Future Facilities pen deal

Data center cooling giant Liebert (part of Emerson Network Power) is teaming up with Aperture and Future Facilities in a push to be the leader in data center prototyping and analysis.

The companies are not merging, but have penned a deal to combine their forces in a push to become the leader in data center prototyping and design. The biggest part of the deal is probably the integration of Future Facilities’ 6SigmaDC computational fluid dynamics software with Aperture’s Vista software. It will allow the CFD airflow analyses done by Future Facilities to take advantage of the large inventory database of IT equipment that Aperture has.

Liebert is still a big part of the deal, however, as its base of customers is larger than either of the other two companies by far.

The full press release spells out a few more details. The companies announced the deal in the midst of AFCOM’s Data Center World conference in Orlando. Check out all of our Data Center World coverage.

Jill Eckhaus’ opening address at AFCOM

ORLANDO — AFCOM CEO Jill Eckhaus opened the Data Center World show this morning with a quick speech before the keynote got underway. She said the show here in Orlando has more than 700 attendees and 125 exhibitors, and is the largest fall show the organization has run since it started about 25 years ago.

Eckhaus said that for data center managers, “learning how to do their jobs with little to no training was a huge task,” and that AFCOM exists to help them.

“Because IT and facilities managers have always been resilient, they did what it took to get the job done and do it right,” she added.

Eckhaus added that for the first time in her 17 years with AFCOM, she is seeing a change in the view of the data center. Before, the data center was segregated and often thought of a department separate from the rest of the business. But now, she said, from the executive level on down, “spending money on IT has become a necessity for success.”

AFCOM Data Center World: The hot sessions

Based on a pre-conference survey, here are some of the sessions generating the most interest for the Data Center World conference being held in Orlando next week, Oct 5-7:

• Inexpensive Techniques to a Greener Data Center (Monday at 10:10-11am; Tuesday at 4:30-5:30pm)

Vinnie Jain, Advanced Marketing Manager, Ortronics/Legrand

With the constantly increasing demand for higher density and higher speeds in data centers, data center managers are always looking for ways to save energy wherever they can to avoid the ever growing problem of power and cooling. This session reveals some inexpensive and effective best practices to improve airflow and thus reduce energy consumption while keeping the data center cool. Data center layout, heat simulation, energy efficiency, and cable management will be discussed. IT managers will learn efficient and cost-effective processes for saving power and creating room for the equipment needed to handle increasing demands on bandwidth. In today’s world, going green is essential to running an efficient data center. Attendees will leave this session with some inexpensive energy saving techniques that will lead them to a greener path.

• The New Role of the Data Center Manager (Monday at 9-10am; Tuesday at 4:30-5:30pm)

Paul Clark, Data Center Manager, The Ohio State University Medical Center
Ron Kibbe, Assistant Director-Customer Support Services, The Ohio State University Medical Center

The role of the data center manager has changed. Dramatic growth of open systems, virtualization, increased network complexity, and storage area networks require higher rack densities that must be balanced with rising energy costs demanding more efficient power and cooling strategies. The data center manager’s role now requires effective understanding of emerging IT technologies and how to fit them into less space, with less environmental impact. This session discusses and offers recommendations to overcome some of the business, technical, and political challenges that the new data center manager faces. Attendees will learn what the industry experts suggest, resources that are available, and the tools to make it all work.

• Data Center Trends and Best Practices Performance (Monday at 10:10-11am; Tuesday at 8-9am)

Mark Levin, Sr. Partner, Metrics Based Assessments LLC

Over the past five years, data centers have grown in both size and complexity, and performance has improved for unit cost and staff productivity. However, basic data center functions, such as disk management, and problem, change and asset management have not improved for most data centers. The gap between average and best practice performance for these areas continues to widen. This session will present a discussion of these trends (z/OS, Windows, UNIX and Linux), and describe what best practice data centers are doing to achieve outstanding performance, e.g., data center and server consolidation. Many of the best practices discussed during the session can be adopted by attendees. They will learn what data centers can do to outperform the average and achieve best practice, how to measure the characteristics of excellence, what attributes identify a best practice data center, how does a world-class data center organize to do its work, how performance is monitored in a world-class data center, and how do you target improvements to achieve best practice?

• Building the Next Generation Data Center Facility (Monday at 9-10am; Tuesday at 3:15-4:15pm)

John Savageau, Managing Director, CRG West

Data center designers and planners are stepping up to the challenges of building high powered, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective facility solutions to meet the needs of tenants deploying a variety of dense server, GRID, and high-availability applications and services. Data center managers face many issues, including how to acquire utility power, space and permits for additional emergency power generation equipment and cooling equipment without eliminating available space or creating an unreasonable environmental burden. This presentation will offer a systematic approach to data center acquisition, design, and construction strategies to meet the needs of the next-generation, high powered user.

For a full guide to all the sessions, visit the Data Center World site.