Shall we meet at Data Centre Transformation next month?

Professional associations, industry bodies and academia continue to play an important role in educating the market, promoting self-regulation and ensuring a co-ordinated response to policy makers. We are therefore delighted to discover that Data Centre Alliance(DCA) and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Leeds are running a full day event looking at Data Centre Transformation. The event will be on July 14th at the University of Manchester.

Enabling business model transformation

Two weeks ago when we explored what should really be on the CIO’s dashboard, we looked at the need to separate production from consumption management. While data centre funding was on a predictable basis, it was appropriate for data centre management to be predominantly concerned about production matters. However, as funding models are now being challenged by new approaches such as cloud based consumption, it has become important for the data centre management team to pay more attention to this.

Even within the production domain, changes are afoot. Operations management now includes embracing the balance between consolidating existing facilities and IT estate alongside the need to embrace innovation. Arguably it is equally important to consider what should be on the data centre manager’s dashboard. By looking ahead at what needs to be measured, managers can drive focus and therefore effort.

Designed for reflection

Like most prospective conference participants, we took a good look at the agenda before signing up. A lot has been squeezed into the eight hour programme, and we were encouraged by the spread of topics.

Measuring what matters – we believe this is the biggest challenge facing data centre management community.

Combining Metrics : The need for a balanced view
Sustainability for Data Centres
The Beauty of Urban Datacentres

Technology driven change – the digital economy has yet to unleash the full scale of its demand for information management. Data centres will be in the eye of the storm, and demand growth can be met only by using technology to disrupt current operations and delivery processes.

Can Digital Demand outstrip Physical Limits?
Software defined datacentres : implications and opportunities
Combined ICT and FM operations in the Data centre: The practical reality and lessons learned.

Energy management – costs and political pressure will keep energy matters top of mind for most data centres.

KPIs for resource efficient data centres
Prospects for Waste Heat Recovery in Data Centers
The Energy Efficient Computing Research Programme at the Hartree Centre

Public sector influences – governments are both users of data centre services and determine policies that influence the way data centres operate.

The Smart City Collaboration Cluster (S3C): its workings and objectives
The pressure of legislation on Data Centres
Horizon 2020 EURECA Coordination Project

The longer view – We believe clouds will force fragmentation within the data centre industry as new business models dictate changes to operating models. Future skills, and the demand and supply of them are closely linked to these emerging models.

Cloud Industry Forum
Supporting Students’ Data Centre Learning Using Modelling Software

Data Centre Alliance members’ event

The following day at the same venue DCA members will be meeting to review and discuss its agenda. This will include future research & development, the DCA Certification scheme and other areas to drive the industry forward.

Research on operating models

If you own or manage a data centre, and are attending the event, we would like to have a conversation to understand your operating model. Our research database is growing and contributors will be able to compare their data centre models to other similar centres. Data provided will be anonymised as the value is in comparison rather than profiling. So if this is something of interest to you, please contact us via our site.

This post first appeared on the old Cassini Reviews website.