News Briefs
Emerson Network Power will host TechUniversity 2008 at the Gaylord Hotel in Dallas, TX, on November 12 and 13. This year's event, themed "Advancing Data Center Efficiency and Flexibility," features 25 continuing education unit (CEU)-accredited sessions led by technical experts, and presents numerous networking opportunities with peers. The event will kick-off with the presentation, "Data Center Insider: A Sit Down With Data Center Leaders," in which experts at GMAC Mortgage, Hilton Hotels, and Time Warner Cable will share experiences in building and operating a sophisticated data center in today's dynamic environment. Admission is $295 and includes sessions, meals, guest reception, networking opportunities and the opportunity to earn CEU credits.


Just in time for Halloween, HP has launched: "What Haunts Your Data Center?," an education campaign that features six animated data center characters that bring to life the scary monsters that haunt IT managers' dreams. With the initiative, HP is trying to bring a little levity to the challenges IT departments face while educating and engaging with its audience in a fun, creative way. The data centers that power the world's economies have evolved into a complex patchwork of interconnected systems and facilities that have not kept up with the pace of technology growth. For this reason, HP has chosen the data center as the setting to illustrate these problems. "What Haunts Your Data Center?" underscores the company's mission to be the best at helping customers design, build, integrate, manage and transform the data center into a business-driven (and future-ready) asset for business and competitive advantage. By applying leading technology and scientific research in new ways, HP helps companies innovate their data centers for greater efficiency and cost savings while exorcising once and for all the monsters of the data center. The movies can be found on YouTube and as a Facebook fan page.

Emerson Network Power announced a number of changes to its infrastructure management and assessment services to improve data center modeling and management. Specifically, Emerson Network Power is collaborating with Future Facilities to advance virtual prototyping of data centers and is integrating the company's 6SigmaDC computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools with the Aperture VISTA infrastructure management system. Emerson Network Power is also expanding the Liebert Data Center Assessment service globally.

 
Larry Quinlan, Deloitte's CIO and a recognized expert on creating green IT and making it succeed, will deliver a "Game-Changer" Keynote at the Uptime Institute 's 2009 Research Symposium . According to Quinlan-who also sits on Deloitte's Operating Committee and serves in three major enterprise-wide roles: Chief Information Officer, National Managing Principal for Process Excellence, and Diversity Leader for the Shared Services-"If you run green IT right, you will end up with a vastly superior IT organization."

CRG West and Mzima announced that Mzima, an IP transit provider's had deployedto six CRG West data centers across the United States.  Mzima's footprint with CRG West now spans five metro markets including Chicago, New York, Northern Virginia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Switch and Data opened the first phase of its largest site to date at 5851 Westside Avenue in North Bergen, NJ. At full completion this site will add more than 163,000 gross square feet to Switch and Data's New York Metro data center capacity, bringing the company's data center capacity in the market to more than 250,000 gross square feet. Switch and Data has interconnected this new site to its existing 111 8th Avenue and 60 Hudson Street sites in New York, providing access to more than 300 networks and making it one of the most densely interconnected data centers in North America. In conjunction with the launch of the North Bergen site, Switch and Data now offers 10 Gig Ethernet interconnectivity between this site and its 111 8th and 60 Hudson facilities.

The California Energy Commission and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs released two documents, The Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC) Guide and the EPC Checklist for review and written comments from ASHRAE TC9.1, The Green Grid, The Uptime Institute, 7x24Exchange, The EU, the Critical Facilities Roundtable, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Their government groups plan to present the criteria to the United States Green Building Council and request that they adopt the criteria to the national LEED certification process.

Exide Technologies announced the planned formation of an Advanced Research and Development Organization and two Global Product Development Centers. The changes are designed to deliver greater collaboration among the operating divisions, more balance between short-term and long-term engineering contributions, and greater productivity. An Advanced Research and Development organization will be established at Exide's world headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia. This group will be led by Rick Johnson, who currently serves Exide as Vice President, Engineering for Transportation Americas.

Visual Network Design Inc. (dba RACKWISE) released its Data Center Manager solution in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.  Named RACKWISE OnDemand, this software service is designed for data centers with less than 100 racks.