Presenter: Pitt Turner, Executive Director, Uptime Institute

Monday, May 17
8:30-9:00 am, Sutton Complex

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In the near term, the greatest opportunity for data center managers and executives is to take back control of their jobs! Some have, but most have not. In spite of myriads of opportunities, real pressures to change, solid accomplishments of industry leaders, and volumes of best practices, there remains much to do. This presentation will ground us in the importance of business requirements and lead us forward to implementation of proven upgrades.

Presenter: Bradford Roberts, Power Quality Systems Director, S&C Electric Company

Wednesday, May 19
1:35-2:05 pm, Nassau B

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In previous Uptime Institute meetings S&C has presented papers on the benefits to performance and reliability by deploying large-scale UPS systems (typically 5.0MVA or larger) at medium voltage. Since those that time several mission critical consulting engineering firms and several large users have adopted this concept and installed large medium voltage systems.

This presentation will review the key benefits that have caused this trend to occur and cite some of the specific reasons this approach was chosen. Several specific examples will be presented along with the justifications used to make this change from more conventional UPS solutions.

Panelists include: John Abbott, The 451 Group; Ken Baker, Hewlett Packard; Dr. Albert Esser, Dell; Dr. Jonathan Koomey, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Moderator)

Tuesday, May 18
11:15-11:50, Sutton Complex

Changes in IT over the past decade have made many data centers obsolete. This roundtable will discuss how IT innovations in the coming decade will drive changes, and how data center owners can ensure today's data centers are still fit for purpose in 2020.

Panelists include: Ken Baker, Hewlett Packard; Keiichi Hirose, NTT Facilities, Inc.; Martin Olsen, Active Power; Jason Schafer, Tier1 Research (Moderator); Ben Stewart, Terremark; Ken Uhlman, Eaton

Wednesday, May 19
11:30-12:00 pm, Gibson

As always, the state of the art in data center power provisioning is in constant flux. This panel explores the latest trends in the efficiency of power provisioning components and how choices can affect site availability. Technologies and strategies examined may include

• flywheel energy storage systems
• advancements in batteries
• direct current power distribution
• changes to distribution voltages
• renewables integration
• demand response

What does the future hold for power?

Panelists include: Carl Cotulli, Wright Line; Joerg Desler, Stulz-ATS; Dr. Bob Sullivan, Uptime Institute (Moderator)

Monday, May 17
2:05-2:35 pm, Gibson

What cooling innovations should data center operators expect in the next few years? Some strategies, like hot / cold aisle containment, are easy to adopt and continue to evolve. Others, like outside air cooling, are still considered experimental but hold great promise.

Some have posited that in some ways, the cooling industry has "failed the CIO" in terms of delivering what data centers need. On this panel, cooling solutions providers, data center end-users, and Uptime Institute's "chief skeptic" Dr. Bob Sullivan meet to discuss (and debate!) the cooling options in terms of their costs, efficiency, and contributions to high availability.

Presenter: Lex Coors, Vice President, Datacenter Technology & Engineering Group, Interxion

Tuesday, May 18
1:25-1:55 pm, Nassau B

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In this session, Lex Coors, Interxion's Vice President of Datacenter Technology & Engineering presents the company's latest research on reducing PUE and optimizing energy performance. Topics include a rethinking of data center energy metrics and measurement, modular data center designs, and how organizations can create the greenest possible data center that meets their business requirements.

 

Presenter:  Jeff Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Ark Continuity

Monday, May 17
3:25-3:55 pm, Clinton

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Ark Continuity's data center development in the west of England is arguably one of the most energy effcient in the world and has been described as "Europe's Greenest Data center." Its PUE levels of below 1.3 are extremely low, given that its service offerings include a Fault Tolerant level. Ark Continuity achieves this by a number of significant technological innovations, including revolutionary geothermal cooling. Jeff Thomas, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Ark Continuity data centers, will discuss the technological innovations in a business and environmental context.

Presenter:  Vince Renaud, Managing Principal, Uptime Institute Professional Services, Uptime Institute

Monday, May 17
2:40-3:10 pm, Nassau A

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This session is of major importance to the data center industry. During the session, The Uptime Institute introduces the new Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability, which complements the Tier Standard: Topology. Operational Sustainability addresses site characteristics beyond Tier that affect data center operations, e.g., site location, building characteristics and management and operations. Operational Sustainability is the measure of the site's capability to achieve or exceed an owner's Tier objective over the long term.

Update!

Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability was released by Uptime Institute on 1 July 2010. Click here to learn more.

 

 

Panelists include Gregg Dixon, EnerNOC; Peter Panfil, Liebert AC Power; Jeff Thomas, Ark Continuity; Dr. Bob Sullivan, Uptime Institute (Moderator); Anthony Wanger, i/o Data Centers

Tuesday, May 18
9:20-9:50 am, Nassau Suite

The major goal of this session is to separate theory from practice, as they relate to renewable energy in data centers. Renewable energy has several potential benefits, including freedom from pollution, a hedge against rising electricity prices, backup power independent of the grid, and putting power close to the point of use. On the other hand, many users have been slow to adopt renewables in practice, despite the benefits.

For those that have adopted renewables, this panel explores the challenges that early-adopters face, how these challenges were overcome, and what other users can learn and apply to decision-making at their own sites. During the Q&A session, audience members are encouraged to share with the panelists what they think the renewables industry can do to better meet the needs of data center operators.

Panelists include Ken Brill, Uptime Institute (Moderator); Bob Cashner, Wachovia (a Wells Fargo Company); Lex Coors, Interxion; Dave Rotheroe, Hewlett Packard; Tony Ulichnie, Uptime Institute

Tuesday, May 18
12:45-1:15 pm, Nassau A

On both the IT and facilities sides of the data center, operators are wary of trade-offs that involve boosting efficiency at the possible expense of uptime. Will new UPS technologies or outside air increase the risk of an outage? Can virtualized platforms and power management features be trusted?

This group of seasoned end-users will discuss how to think about these issues and how each operator can make the best decision with respect to his or her unique business requirements.

Presenter: Martin Olsen, Vice President, Global Channels and Business Development, Active Power

Tuesday, May 18
2:00-2:30 pm, Gibson

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The Model T was the first car to "put America on wheels," partly due to Henry Ford's innovation behind assembly line production. Over time, the production process of pushing out Model Ts was refined and streamlined, removing custom designs from the process. All processes became standardized and repeatable which resulted in mass production of units with little to no defects. Reliability was extremely high. Ultimately, this led to economies of scale which allowed Ford to achieve his objective of offering an automobile that is "...low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one..."

This presentation will discuss how data center and infrastructure containerization is similar to the Model T and highlight the performance and economic benefits behind a system that is pre-assembled and factory tested offsite. The speaker will reference a recent study by Massachusetts-based consulting firm MTechnologies, Inc., which recently identified up to 1200 times the disparity in anticipated defect rates in a field-wired system (conventional brick and mortar facility) compared with a system that is factory-wired. Aston Martin and Ferrari still exist today, but more folks drive Ford and Toyota for good reason.

Presenter:  Gale Nordling, President and Chief Executive Officer, Emprimus

Tuesday, May 18
2:45-3:15 pm, Morgan

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Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI) is a growing threat to data center operations. Technology exists today for a truck carrying specialized equipment to park near a data center, direct electromagnetic radiation through the walls of the facility, and damage data and equipment inside. This session discusses the threat and possible technologies for countering it.

Panelists include: Ken Brill, Uptime Institute; Gale Nordling, Emprimus; Jeff Paschke, Tier1 Research (Moderator); Tony Ulichnie, Uptime Institute

Wednesday, May 19
11:30-12:00 pm, Nassau B

This session on availability looks at some of the lesser known and less-discussed threats to data center availability. The participants will cover Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI), insights on unusual incidents from Uptime Institute research, and vulnerabilities that lurk in most data centers. The session will also survey often-ignored risks that can plague even the best-run facilities. For data center operators who want to learn to root out potential causes of failure and maximize uptime, this is a session not to be missed.