Uptime Institute’s sixth annual Symposium will bring together thought leaders, innovators and practitioners in the data center industry to discuss the latest trends, including how to anticipate and respond to disruptive changes such as cloud computing, volatile demand, and rapidly evolving modular architectures. Attendees will gain strategic and practical insights from the content-rich agenda and the unique opportunity to attend one-on-one sessions with experts from the Institute and analysts from the Institute’s parent company, The 451 Group, and its subsidiary, Tier1 Research. The 2011 Symposium, attended by industry professionals from over 40 countries, will take place on May 9-12, 2011 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

Energy and carbon issues will be the special focus of Day Three of the Symposium, themed The Disrupted Enterprise: Efficiency, Energy and Carbon. This 'conference-within-the-conference' will specifically address topics such as the economic ramifications of analyzing the total cost of enterprise computing as $$ per kW, and energy-aware capacity planning and site selection.

“At this year’s Symposium, the best minds in the industry will meet to share strategies, knowledge and best practices for navigating the road ahead,” said Andy Lawrence, Program Director of the Uptime Institute Symposium and Research Director of Eco-efficient IT, The 451 Group. “Attendees can expect to receive both strategic and practical advice on top-of-mind issues, such as the alignment of IT and facilities infrastructure design and planning, the use of distributed UPS, chiller-free datacenters, preconfigured container ‘pods’ and more. We look forward to another full agenda and a great outcome for this year’s Symposium.”

Symposium delegates include data center planners, designers, builders, owners and operators. The conference will feature high-level presentations, panels, and interactive sessions from award-winning data center operators sharing best practices and success stories. New this year will be an Uptime Institute track with presentations and tutorials around data center economics, design and operations, presented by the Institute.

Symposium 2011 will once again host the Institute’s annual Green Enterprise IT Awards. Winners from around the world will be showcased. Best-in-class organizations that have won past awards include: AOL, Hewlett-Packard, Helsingin Energia, Itaú, MassMutual Financial Group, Savvis, Schneider Electric, Sun Microsystems, the University of Notre Dame and the US House of Representatives. This year’s GEIT Awards include an additional focus on innovations in smaller data centers. The deadline for Awards applications is February 18.

Registration for the Symposium is now open, and an early-bird rate is available until March 31. Registrants will receive a Symposium delegate pass to attend three full days of rich programming, as well as access to an exhibition hall featuring products and services of leading vendors. For more information, visithttp://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com.