I was talking to Julius Neudorfer about this month’s subject of his column, “Hot Aisle Insights,” and he said he was going to write about his new year predictions (Read his column HERE. This got me thinking, where did the year go? Time does fly when you are having fun. We’ve had a lot of great content throughout 2014, and 2015 will be even bigger and better.

Next year Mission Critical Magazine and the Critical Facilities Roundtable are teaming up for the Data Center & Computing Conference and Expo, which will be held June 15-16, 2015 at the Marriott Marquis in New York. This event will bring together both data center owners and operators along with the most innovative and forward thinking solution providers in the market for technical educational workshops, keynote speakers, networking events, and interactive exhibits to help data center professionals keep up with the continuous changes in data center technology. For more information or to register, visit www.mcdatacenterconf.com.

This issue we are focusing on smoke and fire safety, TCO considerations, and high-density applications, along with a host of pertinent topics and great content to help keep you informed. Our cover story, written by Corey Wallace of Southland Industries, offers best practices for installing fire suppression systems in data centers. Steven Carlini, of Schneider Electric, writes about the TCO of prefabricated data centers. Jeff Farley, of TDIndustries, offers practical points to consider when designing data centers. Amaya Souarez, of CyrusOne, weighs in on the multi-echelon approach to DC infrastructure planning. And Bhavesh Patel, of ASCO, shares the story of how one mission critical facility streamlined its critical reporting capability through the use of a critical power management system. And we have our columnists here to offer their perspective: Terry L. Rodgers writes on O&M costs and how to go about determining equipment lifespans, Chris Crosby takes a look at the winners and losers from the upcoming gaming boom, and Paul Schlattman finishes up his look at the development and acquisitions and how they pertain to the cloud.

A great finish to a wonderful year. Here’s to 2015!