Uptime Institute has announced the eighth annual Uptime Institute Symposium will be held May 13-16 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, with a theme of The Global Digital Infrastructure Evolution. Senior data center industry thought leaders, innovators and practitioners from over 30 countries will come together at Symposium 2013 to discuss strategies and best practices for enhancing strategic planning and communication between IT and facilities management.

Symposium will feature over 100 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.

The Global Digital Infrastructure Evolution

Many large organizations—in industries that have historically operated their own portfolio of data centers—are now using some form of outsourced computing services to supplement or replace their enterprise/primary data center.

Uptime Institute, together with The 451 Group, has defined this hybrid system of internal and third-party services as Digital Infrastructure. What is Digital Infrastructure? The enterprise-wide computing environment: data center facilities, IT systems, as well as third-party compute services such as cloud computing and multi-tenant data center providers.

But managing Digital Infrastructure poses its own unique challenges. A 2012 Uptime Institute Survey of global owners revealed that 85 percent utilize third-party services like public cloud, ollocation or SaaS. Yet 54 percent had no confidence in their ability to compare outsourcing alternatives dependably.

Uptime Institute Symposium helps data center professionals better understand the business requirements and financial structures that drive their organization’s Digital Infrastructure decisions. The event educates executives on how to broker third-party IT services, and how to be educated advocates for their internal IT operations. As an independent global data center authority, with over 20 years in the industry advising the largest data center operators in the world, Uptime Institute is uniquely qualified to address these issues.

Key sessions for Symposium 2013 include:

• FORCSS: A Framework for Effective Communication and Decision Making. In 2012, Uptime Institute developed the FORCSS Methodology, a structured process for capturing, analyzing, comparing and prioritizing risk factors that drive IT-dependent business decisions. Symposium 2013 will have a Special Focus on FORCSS, emphasizing how organizations can meet the challenge of making the best possible decisions and investments around Digital Infrastructure.

• Twitter's data center evolution. Anoop Mavath, Director, Global Data Center Services at Twitter, explains how his company has deployed data center infrastructure to keep pace with the constraints and changing demands of managing one of the most dynamic workloads on the Web. Mavath will discuss design specs, financing models, vendor management, dynamic growth, geographic presence, energy efficiency and his company's green programs.

• The Disrupted Data Center. Ten technologies that might change data centers forever
451 Research's Andy Lawrence and the Data Center Technology team will cover leading-edge technologies—prefab modular, Advanced DCIM, dynamic power scaling, solid state storage, fuel cells, software-based resiliency, on-site energy generation—and rate these technologies in terms of their ability to disrupt the business models, ecosystems and design of the data center.

The symposium will also feature:

• Dozens of award-winning Green Enterprise IT case studies from leading data center owners and designers

• Advice on how to purchase Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software

• 2013 results from the latest Uptime Institute Data Center Industry survey and Data Center Density Studies

• Capacity planning advice, and server/storage product roadmaps

"Uptime Institute Symposium calls on IT, facilities and business executives to develop a common language, meaningful metrics, and cross-disciplinary skills to meet rapidly evolving computing demands," said Matt Stansberry, Uptime Institute Director of Content and Publications. "Symposium attendees dive deep into expert content in their specific focus areas, and the insight they gain shapes their organizations' future success."

To view presentations from Symposium 2012 please click here.