Data Centers Understaffed and Underutilized?

The following news snippet from SearchStorage.com caught my eye and I couldn’t resist sharing it here:Symantec Corp.'s State of the Data Center 2008 report paints a picture of understaffed data centers and underutilized storage systems. The report, based on a survey of 1,600 enterprise data center managers and executives, found storage utilization at 50%. The survey also discovered that staffing remains...

Data Center Energy Efficiency in 2009

In my last post, I talked about how it will be more important than ever for data centers to increase their operating efficiencies in the coming year. But, as I’m sure you know, this isn’t a new issue. Boosting energy efficiency in data centers has been a major concern for the past few years, in both the public and private sectors. Doing so will help to produce large energy savings, enhance data center...

Get the Most Out of Your Data Center in 2009

With the economy in turmoil and fears of recession keeping corporate budgets tight, it’s important that organizations get the most bang-for-the-buck with their IT resources. With that in mind, I’d like to recommend another article that looks to the coming year with a proactive mindset. Utility Automation & Engineering T&D and Electric Light & Power online recently published the “Top 10...

Top 10 IT Trends for 2009

Baseline, a magazine for technology leaders and business executives, just published a great slideshow on the IT trends to watch in 2009.Knowledge of the top industry trends can make your company more agile when it comes to implementing information technology and “can give your company the advantage it needs to do business in this challenging economic environment.”The highlighted trends include:Software...

PTS to Provide Services for Verari’s FOREST Container Data Center

I’m happy to announce that PTS Data Center Solutions has partnered with Verari Systems to provide design and construction services for Verari’s FOREST Container data center consolidation solution. The combination of Verari’s modular, portable data center that is deployable virtually anywhere, with the broad project expertise of PTS, provides organizations with a complete and secure “ready to go” alternative...

Data Center Decisions Conference in Chicago

This Thursday, October 23rd, I’ll be a featured speaker at the 2008 Data Center Decisions Conference in Chicago, IL. This year’s conference will focus on four major topics: data center design, systems management, virtualization, and disaster recovery.While the pace of data center and facility design improvements has continually lagged that of IT systems demand, in the last two years vendors have been...

Ongoing Maintenance & Monitoring

It is an obvious truism that given enough time everything will fail. The only tool we have at our disposal to hopefully delay this eventuality is maintenance service. Unfortunately, it’s another truism that for most small computer room operations, this vital step is not performed. As is unfortunately typical, we often put off short-term inconvenience for future unplanned and unpredictable grief.Whatever...

Receptacle Level Load Monitoring & Control

Power monitoring and control at the receptacle or rack level is a hot topic lately. Part of the interest can be attributed to the lure of the unknown – that feeling of “I’m not sure why I want it, but I’ll probably need it!” But there are some really solid reasons for data center managers to consider receptacle-level power monitoring/control solutions.The ability to trace watts information at the...

New White Paper on Power Usage

Managing data center power usage is critical due to rising energy costs and diminishing supplies. But where do you start? To help answer this question, PTS Data Center Solutions in collaboration with Raritan, a leading manufacturer of power management products, developed a new white paper that examines the myths and realities of power usage in the data center. Entitled “Power Moves: Understanding...

Tips for Handling Data Center Moves and Shortages of Space

Look for PTS Data Center Solutions in the July 11th issue of Processor magazine (Vol.30, Issue 28).Kurt Marko interviewed me for the feature article, “Need More Data Center Space?: IT Managers Are Faced With Options Ranging From Simple Housekeeping To Major Construction”. Adding data center space can be a complex and costly issue. If your data center runs out of room, the basic options are 1) reorganize...