The Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, has announced the seventh annual Uptime Institute Symposium will be held May 14-17^th at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California, with a theme of Digital Infrastructure Convergence. Senior data center industry thought leaders, innovators and practitioners from over 30 countries will come together at Symposium 2012 to discuss strategies and best practices for enhancing strategic planning and communication between IT and facilities management. Symposium will feature over 120 presentations and sessions across four days led by industry experts and analysts from Uptime Institute and 451 Research with participation from the most cutting-edge enterprises and organizations in the global data center marketplace.

Digital Infrastructure Convergence

The theme of Uptime Institute Symposium 2012 is Digital Infrastructure Convergence, a call-to-action for IT and facilities management to take a complete 360 degree view of their assets, from virtual, through IT down to the physical infrastructure, while increasing the effectiveness of their strategic planning and communication.

Uptime Institute defines digital infrastructure as the entirety of assets and expertise that deliver information services to the end user. In order to meet business objectives at the application layer, many IT organizations must employ multiple enterprise data centers, outsourced data center providers, private and public clouds and all of the hybrid variants. The fundamental requirement today is to be able to manage computing and storage capacity wherever it resides—seamlessly, automatically, and securely. At Symposium, Uptime Institute is bringing together many of the industry's brightest minds and most accomplished individuals to discuss and collaborate on these challenges and discuss how they will affect the evolution of the data center.

“This year’s Uptime Institute Symposium comes at a critical juncture for the data center industry,” said Matt Stansberry, Symposium 2012 program director. “We are in the midst of a Digital Infrastructure Convergence whereby IT and facilities management must develop and adopt a common language, shared metrics and meaningful key performance indicators in order to meet the rapidly evolving computing demands of businesses. This convergence will be evident at Symposium 2012 as we come together to discuss and evaluate the future dynamics of the data center industry, including hot-topic issues such as modular data centers,” continued Stansberry.  

ModularData CenterCampus

For the first time, this year’s Symposium will feature a unique modular data center campus within the Santa Clara Convention Center. Symposium Delegates and Exposition-registered visitors will have an unprecedented opportunity to actually walk through the leading modular data center designs and make side-by-side comparisons, enabling a better understanding of their respective pros and cons for more effective decision-making. Guided, in-depth tours and expert briefings on the modular data center units will be offered from data center providers Active Power, Digital Realty, IO, and Schneider Electric. 

IO.Anywhere
On display at Symposium will be the IO.Anywhere modular data center, which provides enterprise-class infrastructure that can be delivered as 'Data Center as a Service' and rapidly deployed as a product to customer sites anywhere in the world. Each IO.Anywhere module is composed of a steel/composite exterior and measures 12-ft, 8-in. high x 11-ft, 8-in. wide x 42-ft, 8-in. long.  Inside the module is a raised floor capable of supporting 700 lb/sq ft, HSSD fire detection, HFC 125 gas fire suppression, and spot leak detection. These modules come equipped with a power delivery system that includes primary and backup power generation, and power conditioning that can sustain 100 percent of the IT load when required. IO.Anywhere deployments can scale in increments of 250 kW. These systems can ship with up to eight modular air handlers, variable-speed plug fans, thermal energy storage and free cooling modules. There is a complete separation of cold and hot air inside the modules. The IO.Anywhere systems ship with IO’s data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software, IO.OS, which provides the intelligent control needed to maximize utilization, resiliency, and energy efficiency.  

Schneider Electric
A Schneider Electric Data Center Facility Module will be available for touring at Symposium. This module is typically deployed to provide conditioned power to support either IT containers or data centers where the IT room is located within the building. The facility power module, when combined with a facility cooling module and IT room, makes up a complete data center. Schneider Electric facility modules are pre-engineered, factory assembled and tested to ensure the proven performance is provided. These modules can be deployed within weeks and deliver a capex savings ranging from 10 to 20 percent and an opex savings ranging from 20 to 35 percent. Schneider Electric will feature a 500kW Facility Power Module at the event. Power Modules are built in a repurposed 8- x 40-ft x 9.5-ft ISO shipping container and feature a fully integrated power distribution system composed of switchboards, automatic transfer switch, modular UPS system, cooling, fire suppression, controls, and management system. The facility modules are engineered at various capacity points: 250kW, 500kW, 750kW, and 1MW.

Digital Realty
Digital Realty will feature its Pod Architecture 2.0 design at Symposium. Digital Realty maintains an inventory of different configurations: Raised floor or no raised floor, chilled water cooling, or outside air. Data center owners are also able to customize the level of redundancy based on business requirements. Electrical and mechanical components are built, pre-tested and held in inventory. Each component is built and pre-wired on a transportable skid and shipped to the customer’s site for final assembly.

 Active Power

Active Power will showcase its PowerHouse modular unit for continuous data center backup power at Symposium. These units ship in increments from 240 KW to 960 KW of critical power. The modules contain all critical power infrastructure components in a single purpose-built enclosure, including high-efficiency UPS, standby diesel generator, switchgear, monitoring and controls software, and base fuel tank. PowerHouse can support a conventional data center build, a modular design, or an IT container environment. All engineering, component integration, assembly and testing are completed at the factory, not on the customer’s site, reducing deployment time, errors, and cost. 

Symposium Registration

Attend Uptime Institute Symposium 2012: Digital Infrastructure Convergence to participate in the premier event in the data center industry and to tour the Modular Data Center Campus by registering for Delegate or Expo/Modular Data Center Campus-only passes here. Symposium underwriters include Platinum sponsor Digital Realty, Diamond sponsors IO and Schneider Electric, Gold sponsors Emerson, and HP and Silver sponsors Fortrust, FieldView Solutions, NoLimits Software, RF Code, and Vantage Data Centers.