Data Center and Green IT at Interop New York 2012

Sorry, data center managers, but your lives are only going to get busier and more complicated…

As the global economy recovers, pent-up business demand for new applications and market initiatives will fuel IT investments, particularly in the data center. Why? In one way or another, data center-related technologies enable all these business initiatives, from capturing new customers and launching new products to improving productivity and driving profitability. And improving data center people, process and technologies can enable faster, more secure and more cost efficient business results.

So what are you going to do about it? Attending Interop New York 2010 from October 18th to 22nd is a start. And here’s why.

As Interop New York 2010’s Data Center and Green IT track chair, I had the opportunity to review countless session submissions from technology vendors, practitioners and industry experts. Combine that with attendee feedback from previous Interop events, we’ve developed an agenda that balances best practices for projects at hand with technology trends to plan and budget for into the future. Here’s what attendees can look forward to.

The Data Center track is for IT managers responsible for data center-related facilities and IT infrastructure (e.g. servers, storage, networks). The first two sessions tackle trends that aren’t as far off as we think: cloud computing and converged infrastructure. The “Building A Private Cloud In Today’s Data Center With Today’s Infrastructure” session focuses on achieving cloud-like efficiencies using existing facilities and infrastructure investments. And “How Data Center Managers Should Plan For Convergence” is a panel discussion on the realities of converged server, storage and networks. Later sessions focus on best practices for common projects and decisions, including a presentation on “How To Extend The Life Of Your Data Center” followed by a panel discussion on “Are Data Center Tiers Really Necessary?”

The Green IT track targets IT professionals, regardless of role or title, who are responsible for green IT within their organization. To offer a holistic view of green IT, the track starts with “Best Practices: Learn How Leading Organizations Are Greening Their IT Successfully” delivered by yours truly. From there, we divide green IT into two camps: the data center and distributed IT. The panel on “A Comprehensive Approach To Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption” identifies energy efficiency tactics across data center facilities, power, cooling, and IT infrastructure, while the panel on “How Green Is Your PC Environment? Strategies To Reduce PC Energy Consumption” zeroes in on the PCs.

We look forward to seeing you in October.

Your Interop Track Chair,

Doug Washburn
Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations
Forrester Research