Mission Critical Announces 5 New Board Members

The publishers of Mission Critical announced that five industry professions had joined the publication's editorial advisory board, bringing to 16 the number of professionals offering insights and perspectives to the editor, Kevin Heslin. The new members are: Christian Belady, Microsoft Scott Good, Turner Construction John Musilli, Intel Corp Dean Nelson, Sun Glen Neville, Deutsche Bank "We're very pleased that these individuals have joined our board. They make an already great group  stronger," Heslin said, "They have already begun contributing ideas that will appear in our upcoming edition, and in our e-newsletters, website, and webinars." "Mission Critical seeks to offer the most complete and accurate coverage of data center and emergency back up solutions. The editorial advisory board is one important tool that we use to reach these goals. We also highly value our relationships with industry trade associations, including 7x24Exchange, Datacenter Dynamics, AFCOM, and The Uptime Institute," said Publisher Peter Moran. For more information about Mission Critical's Editorial Advisory Board, please visit: www.missioncriticalmagazine.com/CDA/HTML/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000220957

Belady Good Musilli Nelson Neville

ARI Survey Finds Business Slow to Upgrade Data Center Facilities
An Aperture Research Institute (ARI) survey of more than 600 data center facilities across the U.S. shows that data centers are aging and companies are not planning ahead or demonstrating timely investment in new data centers. More than a third (38 percent) of organizations surveyed said that their current data center was built over four years ago, which reflects the challenge so many organizations have when coping with the intense power and cooling demands of modern hardware such as high-density blade servers and virtualization technologies. More worryingly, a majority of those surveyed, almost two-thirds (64 percent), admitted they were not planning or building new data centers.  The remainder, just over one third (36 percent), had predicted the demand for scaling with their operations and are building and/or planning new data centers.
 Steve Yellen, Principal of the Aperture Research Institute said, “The average time required to plan and build a new data center is typically three or more years, which leads us to a worrying conclusion about the future of data centers and the impact of this lack of foresight. Data center managers are already facing day-to-day challenges on managing increasingly complex technologies in old facilities. But adding new technology to an aging environment is like building a high-rise office complex in a rural town. The small town, like a legacy data center, cannot support the infrastructure requirements for the office complex to operate efficiently and the occupants will never realize the benefits of the upgrade they expected. Installing state-of-the-art equipment in an aging facility will limit the benefits that can be delivered by the new technology, and in some cases, will overload the infrastructure to the point of failure.”
Despite the age and unreadiness of current data centers, there is already an investment in high density computing, with over four-fifths (87 percent) of organizations having introduced blade servers.
 Of survey respondents that were building a data center, more than a quarter (26 percent) were anticipating a build time of between two and three years before the center would go live, while 15 percent had planned more than three years for builds.
 The ARI survey of more than 100 data center professionals in the finance, health care, government, retail, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries also highlights the management challenge faced by data center managers that are increasingly responsible for more disparate and numerous operations. More than a third (38 percent) of the companies surveyed currently operate more than six data centers and over a quarter (28 percent) have over ten facilities.
Power demands, one of the challenges that is creating much discussion about and within the data center industry, is showing little sign of slowing down. More than half (57%) of all respondents with current data center builds, say their data center will consume between one and five megawatts, with the same level of consumption being expected by those with planned builds (55%). Almost a quarter (22%) of planned builds will operate between five and ten megawatts.
The Aperture Research Institute’s latest research note, entitled ‘Majority of Data Centers in Production are Not Equipped for High Density Operation’, is available at
www.aperture.com/about/research_institute/ari_data_center_builds_121007.pdf

Data393 Acquired by Managed Data Holdings

Peak 10 to Open Data Center Facility Near Cincinnati

Peak 10 Inc. announced that it will open a new state-of-the-art data center facility in the Greater Cincinnati region. The 22,000-square-foot facility will be based in West Chester, OH. Peak 10 Cincinnati is the company’s third new market expansion in 2007, having completed two acquisitions earlier in the year. In February, Peak 10 entered the Richmond, Va. market and in August, the Atlanta, Ga. market.  Concurrent with its new market entries, Peak 10 has deepened its commitment to existing markets with major capacity and infrastructure expansions in Raleigh and Charlotte, NC; Jacksonville, FL; and Nashville, TN.

Digital Realty Trust Hosts Cooling Best Practices Seminars

Digital Realty Trust will host a series of upcoming seminars that will provide data center professionals with practical information about best practices for data center cooling. The seminars will feature three of the industry's most respected experts in datacenter operations and efficiency:
* Robert "Dr. Bob" F. Sullivan, PhD., the Uptime Institute's highly respected datac enter cooling expert who originated the concept of hot-aisle-cold-aisle datacenter design
* Dr. Amir Radmehr, a widely respected and extensively published data center cooling expert from Innovative Research, Inc
* Jim Smith, Vice President, Engineering at Digital Realty Trust, who is recognized as one of the foremost authorities in efficient data center operations and green datacenter design.
The two-day seminars will take place

• Dallas, TX -- January 29-30
  
• San Francisco, CA -- February 26-27
• Dublin, Ireland -- April 16-17
• New York, NY-- May 21-22
• Chicago, IL -- June 18-19
  

Upsite Technologies, Inc. , developer of solutions specifically designed to optimize your data center's critical infrastructure, released the next-generation KoldLok Extended Raised Floor Grommets (items 10012 and 10013). In response to industry feedback, Upsite has significantly improved the features and capabilities of the existing KoldLok Extended Raised Floor Grommets line with no increase in price. Re-engineered to offer even greater modularity, Upsite’s 3-inch/76-millimeter and 6-inch/152-millimeter customizable grommets can seal raised-floor tiles that measure either 24 inches or 600 millimeters long. With the new screw-hole design featured on the end caps and flange, more filaments can be exposed, which improves the sealing effectiveness. In addition, Upsite’s state-of-the-art KoldLok product now incorporates a PC/ABS plastic end cap, and the flange width has been reduced from 3 inches to 2 inches. Both enhancements make the product lighter and easier to handle.

Five small-range diesel generators from Kohler Power Systems have been redesigned with compactness and durability in mind for standby and prime power applications. Available in 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60-kW models, these diesel generators also meet the 2008 CI emission regulations. Both weatherproof and sound-attenuated enclosures are available, and keep the generator noise levels to down to an impressive 65 dBA. The enclosures are available in rugged steel or aluminum construction to withstand the most harsh environments and climates. The integral, in-skid fuel tanks offer a more compact design and provide between 24-48 hours of continuous operation.